Jurors in McVeigh Trial Make Trip to Bombing Site

A year ago, Rudy Guzman watched jurors convict Timothy J. McVeigh for the federal building bombing that killed his brother and 167 other people.

On Friday, Guzman met most of those same jurors as they started a weekend visit to the site of the bombing and the people whose lives they touched from a courtroom distance.

“I didn’t have an opportunity in court to talk to them,” Guzman said. “They proved the justice system works in this country, so I’m just going to say thank you.”

The Colorado jury, on June 2, 1997, convicted McVeigh of murder, explosives and conspiracy counts in the bombing.

Eleven days later, the jurors recommended death, and a federal judge later concurred. McVeigh is appealing the conviction and sentence.

Guzman and others waved miniature Colorado state flags and sang “Oklahoma!” as the panelists got off the plane. Bombing survivors and family members grabbed, hugged and kissed the jurors.

The visit resulted from a wish that panelist Vera Chubb uttered the day after she and other jurors recommended McVeigh die for the April 19, 1995, explosion, which also injured more than 500 people.

Chubb got to see Kylie Williams, a 2-year-old girl whose father, Scott, died while making a delivery to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building the day of the bombing. Chubb shares the same birthday with Kylie, July 19.

“One reason I have come here is that I believe the victims and the families were all one extended family, and I needed to be a part of this,” Chubb said.

She hugged Nicole Williams, Kylie’s mother. Last year, Williams’ mother sent Chubb a birthday card, and Chubb sent Kylie a guardian angel pin.

Jury foreman Jim Osgood said it would be a challenging weekend for jurors who sat through emotional and graphic testimony in McVeigh’s trial in Denver.

“We also look forward to finally putting a face with a name and carrying on the conversations that started over the telephone,” he said.

Ten of the 12 jurors and all six alternates made the trip. One juror whose husband died did not come and another juror’s wife fell ill and he canceled.

The group planned to plant a tree near where the Alfred P. Murrah building was blown apart by McVeigh’s massive truck bomb. They were also to meet about 500 survivors, victims’ relatives and rescue workers at a dinner tonight.

Stephen Jones, who defended McVeigh in his federal trial, said Thursday that the visit suggests the trial was not a solemn judicial process but “an emotional catharsis.”

The trip was paid for by a group made up of survivors and family members of victims. The victims’ group collected contributions for the former jurors’ visit, including donated plane tickets. A hotel is lodging the visitors free, downtown restaurants will feed them and a church will ferry them around the city. The tab for the two-day meeting is expected to run about $30,000.

“I understand what motivates the generosity of the people who made that possible, and I can understand the motive of the jurors,” Jones said. “But I have to say, in all honesty, that it is singularly inappropriate.

“The simple truth is, justice has to be blind to agony,” he said.

Osgood said the visit and the deliberations are separate.

“I would say, without hesitation, that we remain committed to our deliberations, our focus on the facts, the testimony, our objective process that we used during our deliberations,” he said.

“[There is a] big anticipation on going down to the bombing site, looking forward to seeing what we weren’t allowed to be shown in the courtroom,” juror Michael Leeper said.