McVeigh’s Attorneys Appeal for New Trial

Timothy J. McVeigh’s lawyers on Monday filed a massive appeal for a new trial, claiming he was unfairly convicted and sentenced to death in the Oklahoma City bombing because his defense team was prevented from presenting certain evidence on his behalf.

Their key complaint was that U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch barred testimony from a former paid government witness who would have told the jury about sentiments at an extremist religious compound in eastern Oklahoma known as Elohim City. McVeigh’s lawyers said the witness, Carol Howe of Tulsa, would have shown she advised federal agents that some in the compound were planning to attack several federal buildings--including the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City--in retaliation for the 1993 government raid on another religious cult near Waco, Texas, in which more than 80 people perished.

“The residents of Elohim City,” the lawyers said in their motion, “had the same motivations, knowledge, expertise and politics that the government attributed to McVeigh and were suspects in the initial investigation. The testimony would have established either that Mr. McVeigh did not commit the crime or that he did not commit the crime alone.”

Matsch ruled that testimony about the group was not directly relevant to the case against McVeigh.

McVeigh’s lawyers also argued that:

* They were handicapped by a court ruling that they could not use the entire contents of a critical report on the FBI crime lab.

* Media stories about two alleged McVeigh “confessions,” printed shortly before his trial began, “poisoned” the jury pool and made it impossible to seat an impartial jury to hear the case against McVeigh in the deaths of 168 people in the explosion.

* Days of emotional testimony from dozens of those injured in the blast and relatives of those killed unfairly swayed jurors against McVeigh during the trial’s penalty phase.

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The 180-page legal motion, along with 31 volumes of supporting documents, was packed into more than a dozen boxes and wheeled into the U.S. District Court Clerk’s office here.

“Mr. McVeigh’s life is literally at stake here,” said Rob Nigh Jr., a defense attorney who has worked on the legal request since June 13, when McVeigh’s jury recommended that he be executed for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah building.

Matsch has not signaled when he might rule on the request for a new trial. Nor has he set a date for formally imposing the death sentence on McVeigh, a 29-year-old Army veteran of the Gulf War.

The critical report on the FBI crime laboratory that the defense motion refers to was released earlier this year by the Department of Justice’s inspector general. McVeigh’s lawyers argued that the jury should have been allowed to see the entire report, which strongly suggests that explosive materials found on McVeigh’s clothing more than likely were contaminated by lab officials.

“It showed a history, habit and routine practice on the part of the FBI laboratory to slant evidence in favor of the prosecution,” the defense lawyers said.