Court Upholds Bombing Verdict Against McVeigh

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh, who claimed testimony from victims’ relatives produced a verdict and sentence based on emotion rather than reason.

The appeals court also rejected eight other avenues of appeal, including pretrial publicity, juror misconduct and barred testimony that others may have carried out the worst bombing on American soil.

McVeigh, 30, was convicted of murder, conspiracy and weapons-related charges and sentenced to death for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast killed 168 people and injured hundreds.

The emotional testimony from victims’ relatives was proper, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

“The devastating effects that the deaths of the victims had on their families and loved ones is certainly part and parcel of the circumstances of the crime properly presented,” the court said.

Among the 38 witnesses who testified were Pamela Sue Whicher, who told the jurors of her children’s feelings of regret at not hugging their father goodbye that day.

Diane Leonard described her vain search of hospitals for her husband. Kathleen Treanor recounted the discovery and return of her deceased daughter’s hand six months after the explosion.

The panel said there was no misconduct when a juror decided McVeigh’s guilt before the trial was over, and that he was not deprived of a fair trial despite media reports that he had confessed to his lawyers.

Prosecutors said McVeigh was incensed about the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in which more than 80 people were killed, and argued that he carried out the bombing to spark a general uprising in the country.

McVeigh was also convicted of murder in the deaths of eight federal agents who were in the Oklahoma building at the time of the bombing. He is being held in a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo.

McVeigh’s former Army buddy, Terry L. Nichols, who was convicted for his role in the bombing earlier this year, is in the early stages of appealing his conviction.