Timothy McVeigh: Gnawing Questions

McVeigh: Gnawing Questions

Tuesday, June 3rd, 1997 -- Everyone knew that Timothy McVeigh was going to be found guilty of all counts even before the jury was selected in the Oklahoma Bombing Trial, yet I found myself rushing home form an impromptu meeting with my editor to view (or hear) the verdict first-hand as it was read yesterday afternoon. Maybe, by some incredible fluke, the jury would say the government hadn't proven its case.

The O.J. trial reared its head.

The television coverage was pathetically provincial, with CNN and CNBC taking up the early slack with silly shots of their people in parking lots telling stories of victim's relatives rushing to the courthouse and other hastily arranged sites to hear the verdict firsthand. I didn't see any rushing and the parking lots weren't full. Of course, none of those still mourning the loss of loved ones -- save the few who found space inside the court -- would hear the verdict any faster than I would sitting in my bedroom with my collie curled up beside me on the Jersey shore.

I wondered whether people around the world were rushing to tune in CNN and listen to the obvious.

The networks, as usual, did not cut in until the last moment -- hating to lose even the slightest slice of advertising revenue. But there was CBS and NBC on the air, with anchors and all. Tom Brokaw was live both on the mother network and on upstart CNBC. Peter Jennings was conspicuously absent.

And so the verdict was read. Guilty, guilty, guilty…. Then followed a mass of one-on-one interviews with victim's family and friends, gawkers and looky-loos. None of them seemed to have much weight lifted from them as they realized, even subconsciously, that finding someone to blame for their misery didn't help much. In all, most agreed it was a somewhat hollow victory.

So now the same jury will engage in a week-long debate about whether the government should kill McVeigh.

I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

One of the most poignant stories to come out of yesterday's circus was that not a single soul -- family member or friend -- had come to court for McVeigh unless by compelled testimony. In a sense he was already dead, shunned by people who had changed his diapers, taken him to school and fought with him in the armed forces.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't weep for McVeigh. If he's the murderer they say he is, then so be it.

It's just that I've never been much for the death penalty. It closes so many doors. It doesn't allow us to undo mistaken convictions. It seems barbaric. But then, so do many things in our and other cultures.

Ours isn't a perfect legal system. It doesn't always work. In this case, maybe it has. Yet, I hope the jury spares his life. I suppose it's because I'd like to know who else was in on this bombing.

That's was gnawing at me.