McVeigh Will Not Use Insanity Defense in Trial, His Lawyers Say
Timothy J. McVeigh will not use an insanity defense when he goes on trial in the Oklahoma City bombing case, his lawyers said Thursday.
“The psychiatric and psychological evaluations aren’t 100% completed, but from what we know at this point we have no reason to assert a mental defect,” attorney Stephen Jones said. “He’s as sane as any lawyer or reporter.”
He said McVeigh has been pronounced competent by Dr. Seymour Halleck, a University of North Carolina psychiatrist who testified for the defense in Susan Smith’s trial for drowning her two sons in South Carolina.
Other experts also were examining McVeigh.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Steve Mullins, a spokesman for the prosecution, was out of the office Thursday and unavailable for comment.
Jones has said McVeigh’s defense will directly challenge the evidence against him in the April 19 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. He has said he will especially attack the testimony of Michael Fortier, a former Army buddy of McVeigh’s who has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and agreed to testify for the prosecution.
McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols face the death penalty if convicted in the blast, which killed 169 people and injured 600.
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