McVeigh’s Attorneys Fail in 3 Attempts to Delay Trial

A federal appeals court cleared the way Friday for Timothy J. McVeigh to go on trial next week in the Oklahoma City bombing, rejecting three separate attempts by his attorneys to delay the proceeding.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said all three petitions filed this week were inappropriate and premature.

McVeigh’s attorney, Stephen Jones, made the latest delaying attempt only hours before, claiming that prospective jurors’ views have been irreparably poisoned by news accounts of McVeigh’s purported confessions.

On Wednesday, Jones had asked the appeals court to delay the trial while he challenges a new law allowing victims who plan to testify during the penalty phase to watch the trial.

And on Tuesday, he had alleged that prosecutors had covered up evidence that the bombing was carried out by white supremacists working with foreign terrorists. Prosecutors ridiculed that assertion, saying it “reads like a bad Hollywood script.”

A spokeswoman for the prosecution had no comment after the appeals court rejection. A telephone call to Jones’ office was not immediately returned.

McVeigh’s trial is set to begin Monday morning with jury selection.

McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols are charged with murder and conspiracy in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 people and injured more than 500. Nichols will be tried separately at an undetermined date.

In Friday’s petition, Jones said stories in the Dallas Morning News and on Playboy magazine’s Internet site about McVeigh’s purported confessions have been “seared” into the minds of potential jurors.

He asked the appeals court to halt Monday’s start of the trial “to allow the effects of the prejudicial pretrial publicity . . . to subside and diminish.”

Jones has said the Morning News story came from a document fabricated by the defense to fool a potential witness and that the Playboy account was based on an outdated defense timeline that includes items not from McVeigh.