McVeigh Wants Public Execution

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/22/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

In a letter published in the Sunday Oklahoman newspaper, convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, 32, requested that his scheduled May 16 execution should be broadcast publicly. "Because the closed-circuit telecast of my execution raises these fundamental equal access concerns, and because I am otherwise not opposed to such a telecast, a reasonable solution seems obvious: hold a true public execution -- allow a public broadcast," he wrote. McVeigh is due to be executed by injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., for his role in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people and injured 500. Several of the survivors of the tragedy, as well as their relatives, had asked to witness McVeigh's death, though reportedly only a few spectator seats are available. McVeigh's lawyer, Rob Nigh Jr., confirmed that his client wrote the letter and means what he said about broadcasting his killing. "He is in favor of public scrutiny of government action, including his execution," Nigh told the paper. Speaking for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Dan Dunne told reporters that a national broadcast "hasn't even been considered. It won't happen."