[Bill Hemmer, Cnn Anchor:] Convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to die in one week from today, but if his defense team wins the latest court battle, that will not happen, at least not that soon. Standing in the way right now are federal prosecutors, and today they filed their response to McVeigh's petition for a stay of his execution. CNN's Susan Candiotti live from Denver now. And, Susan, what's the Justice Department's take thus far today?
[Susan Candiotti, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Bill, not surprisingly, the government has gone on the attack against the defense, tried to knock down each and every point the defense is making in trying to win a stay of execution for Timothy McVeigh, who is currently scheduled to die by lethal injection, as you know, on June the 11th. The government is basically attacking the defense's case on three main points: No. 1, that this is the improper court. The trial judge does not have proper jurisdiction for the defense to file a stay of execution. No. 1 [sic], that there is nothing in any of the documents turned over to the defense that questions in any way McVeigh's guilt. And third, that the government did not commit fraud, did not intentionally withhold evidence by the defense. In fact, in the words of the Justice Department Prosecutor Sean Conelly, this quote: "There is no case in which the death sentence could be more appropriate than this one." Now, you will recall that just last week the defense went on the attack and tried to win a stay of execution for Timothy McVeigh, and it used a very creative and interesting argument. It cited a 1944 civil case involving patent fraud in trying to say that the U.S. government intentionally withheld evidence, more than 4,400, pages of new material not previously available to the defense before trial. McVeigh's lawyers are arguing that the FBI committed fraud by not turning over this information to them. And they want a stay so that the court, in the words of. defense, can get time to post a to hold an evidentiary hearing so that the defense can try to prove this to the court. And they also want the judge to allow them to reopen an appeal, an appeal that was rejected by the trial judge last October, in which the defense tried to say that Timothy McVeigh had ineffective counsel, and that the FBI had mishandled evidence. The government, of course, is going on the attack by saying that none of this is applicable, and that if the defense wants to file for an appeal, then it should appeal before the court of appeals. All of this, of course, is up to Judge Matsch, who will hold a hearing on all of this on Wednesday. Back to you.
[Hemmer:] All right, Susan. Susan Candiotti live in Denver with the very latest there.