McVeigh’s Lawyer Might Ask to Move Trial Out of Oklahoma

Federal building bombing suspect Timothy J. McVeigh’s defense will ask that his trial be moved out of the state because of pretrial publicity, his lawyer said Monday.

“I definitely will ask the court to move the case out of Oklahoma and probably out of the 10th Circuit,” Stephen Jones said during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. The U.S. 10th Circuit includes Utah, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols are the only people charged in the April 19 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people and injured more than 500. If their trials are not moved, McVeigh and Nichols could be tried in the federal courthouse across the street from the bombing site.

In earlier interviews, Jones had said he hoped that the trial could be held in Oklahoma, but he has appeared cool to the idea recently.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Ryan has said that prosecutors will fight any attempt to move the trial.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., President Clinton asked Congress on Monday for an additional $474 million for anti-terrorism programs and for the recovery in Oklahoma City.

The request is for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Also on Monday, the General Services Administration said the government has established 352 security committees to study measures to protect federal buildings from attack.

GSA Administrator Roger W. Johnson said his agency has worked with federal agency and department heads and union leaders to establish these committees, as required by a Justice Department report last month.

That report found that most federal facilities failed to meet new security standards adopted after the Oklahoma City bombing. Clinton last month ordered all executive branch agencies to begin upgrading immediately to meet the recommended minimum security standards.

Of 347 large federal office buildings that were part of the study, just 15% X-rayed incoming packages and mail; fewer than half had parking controls that met the new standards, and only a quarter had visitor and employee identification and control systems, the Justice Department found.

But Ken Kimbrough, GSA’s public buildings commissioner, said security at federal facilities has improved already. One of the first things to change after the Oklahoma bombing was the removal of parking adjacent to federal buildings, he said.