Attorney General Ashcroft Discusses Pending Execution of Timothy McVeigh
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In the last hour, CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena sat down with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to discuss the pending execution of Timothy McVeigh.</s>KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mr. Ashcroft, Timothy McVeigh's lawyers called yesterday ruling the Tim McVeigh exception to the rule of law. They say all they wanted was more time to look over the documents. With McVeigh scheduled to die on Monday morning, won't there always be some doubt that full justice wasn't carried out?</s>JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: There won't be any doubt, because the courts have acted very responsibly. The court had the opportunity to look at the documents, and Tim McVeigh's attorneys indicated that there were only nine documents that they felt could have any impact at all. Our brief very clearly specified that every fact in all nine of those documents had previously been available to the McVeigh trial team during the trial on the basis of other documents that contained the same facts. The court in getting to the nine-document level and the McVeigh attorneys sifted through what clearly was a lot of material, most of which totally irrelevant. We had folders of newspaper clippings about the trial -- or about the event. They didn't bring new facts to bear. The U.S. court in Denver, on the basis of our brief, our material, made a very clear ruling. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals made a ruling so clear that McVeigh's attorneys and McVeigh have decided not to pursue this matter further. I believe that justice has been done responsibly, and the completion of this process is very important.</s>ARENA: Some suggest, sir, that Timothy McVeigh, in this whole process, has been turned into sort of a martyr for sympathizers or militia groups who view the government as an enemy. How concerned are you that this may give momentum to their cause?</s>ASHCROFT: I'm concerned about the victims here. They have been very responsible, and we have a responsibility to the victims -- 168 people were killed, including 19 children. Hundreds more people were injured. And it's our responsibility, and it's the responsibility of the justice system to come to a completion of the process. This completion will not restore the victims, but it will, at least, allow them to know that the justice process has worked and that it's complete.</s>ARENA: Is there any concern at all on your part about momentum building up for that faction of the population?</s>ASHCROFT: You know, we want the conduct of justice to be responsible, and that's why we don't think that there should be irresponsible publicity in the media regarding Timothy McVeigh. We didn't think there should be any filming of this matter so that he could promote his ideas. I don't think an individual who kills 168 people should be in any way memorialized or aggrandized. And yes, we are concerned and want to make sure that in our responsible operation of the judicial system, we don't promote activity that is abhorrent, the most heinous crime ever to be perpetrated on American soil.</s>ARENA: Following up on the filming of the McVeigh execution, a federal judge in Pittsburgh today ordered that the McVeigh execution be videotaped for use in an unrelated capital murder case. What is Justice's position on that ruling?</s>ASHCROFT: The Justice Department respects the rule and regulation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which prohibits the taping, recording or memorializing of executions. The Justice Department will do everything within its power to sustain that ruling and to observe it, as a means of providing the right, responsible approach to bringing justice to a completion in terrible, heinous criminal cases like this one, where 168 people died, and hundreds more were injured.</s>ARENA: Some suggest, though, that a broader audience viewing an execution could serve as a deterrent. What's your stand?</s>ASHCROFT: I think a responsible approach to the completion of the justice responsibility here, to fulfilling this charge we have from the culture, is very consistent with the Federal Bureau of Prisons' prohibition on publicizing, aggrandizing or memorializing the person being executed. Its prohibition on filming, recording or taping is the right policy, and this department will do everything within its power to observe and sustain that policy.</s>ARENA: How significant do you think it is that the United States is carrying out the first federal execution in 38 years, when many of our Western partners have either abolished the death penalty or firmly against it?</s>ASHCROFT: The Congress of the United States, in response to the kind of heinous, terrorist attacks, like this one, has made it very clear that we value our freedom, and we value the lives of American citizens so profoundly that we want to send a signal that we take it so seriously that we will impose the death penalty on those who inflict this kind of damage on America and on her people. I support the Congress in that respect. I believe a responsible judicial system replete with fairness, guaranteeing that the procedure is a good procedure that is sound, bringing us to the right conclusion, is what it ought to be. And the Congress has appropriately directed this; it's the policy of the United States government, and it are be achieved in this case.</s>ARENA: In administering the death penalty, the Office of Justice just concluded a study showing there were no racial or geographical biases, but critics are not satisfied with that conclusion and point specifically to the fact that more blacks and Hispanics are targeted at the front end of the process. While may not be facing capital sentences at the end, at the beginning, there's an unfair targeting of blacks and minorities. How will you address that?</s>ASHCROFT: Well, first of all, we have very carefully studied 700 cases, Miss Reno did -- my predecessor as attorney general. She found no basis for concluding that any bias, ethnic or otherwise, existed. We added 250 more cases that had been more recent and hadn't been part of first study, and with the 950-case study group, we could find no bias whatever. In fact, white citizens were slightly more likely to be charged in and moved through the system in a place of capital jeopardy than were blacks: 38 percent for white, 25 percent for blacks, and 20 percent for Hispanics. So there isn't any evidence. However, I think it's very important that the American people trust the system, and that they trust it to do the right thing. I'm directing the National Institute of Justice to study further and to continue our circumspect, careful approach, so that we can be assured and understand and know there's no racial or gender bias or other bias that makes inappropriate the imposition of this very serious penalty.</s>HARRIS: There we heard the words of Attorney General John Ashcroft, on the eve of this execution of Timothy McVeigh. Kelli Arena conducted that interview. 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