US Attorney General Mr John Ashcroftsaid he would authorize no further delays of the executionof convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh now set for June11th.
"No document creates any doubt of McVeigh's guilt, let aloneestablishes his innocence, which is the legal standard an appealmust overcome," Mr Ashcroft said.
Mr Ashcroft said the nearly 900 pagesof documents that had been turned over to McVeigh's attorneys yesterday did not in any way call his guilt into question.
Although a protective court order barred him from discussingspecifics regarding the documents, Mr Ashcroft gave general details ofsome of the newly discovered documents.
He said there was a vast array of newspaper and magazineclippings, including pictures from a swimsuit calendar, as well asvarious offers from psychics to "contact the dead victims forinformation about the bombing."
"The American people can have confidence that all documents nowhave been identified and produced, and that nothing in any of thesedocuments undermines McVeigh's admission of the murder of 168 of hisfellow American citizens, or nothing in these documents underminesthe justice of his sentence," Mr Ashcroft said.In a series of media interviews, McVeigh admitted to the April19, 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah federalbuilding, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
Mr Ashcroft had postponed McVeigh's death by lethal injection fromMay 16th to June 11th, to give his lawyers time to review previouslyundisclosed documents relating to his 1997 trial, which the FBIsuddenly found in its files earlier this month."The first delay in this case was necessary for this review bylawyers for the defense and the prosecution," Mr Ashcroft said. "Asecond delay in this case would ignore the evidence and the facts ofthe case.
"We also need to be sensitive to the victims of this ruthlessattack. Throughout this legal process, we have been keenly mindfulof the pain that careful judicial proceedings sometimes causevictims to endure.
"I again extend my sympathy to the victims of this assault ...and I will not add to their pain," Mr Ashcroft said. AFP