-Caveat Lector- www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010511/aponline105907_000.htm Friday, May 11, 2001; 10:59 a.m. EDT Justice Department Wants McVeigh Delay By Ron Fournier AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON -- Justice Department lawyers have recommended that Attorney General John Ashcroft delay the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh for 30 days, two government officials said Friday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Attorney General John Ashcroft was expected to approve the request later Friday. The recommendation came one day after the FBI disclosed that it had failed to turn over documents to McVeigh's defense. McVeigh, 33, is scheduled to die Wednesday at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. The belated uncovering of the documents embarrassed the government and angered victims and their families. But it was not immediately clear whether McVeigh -- who had waived appeals in the past few months and claimed responsibility for the bombing -- would himself now seek a delay. "We needed this death penalty," said Aren Almon Kok, whose baby daughter came to symbolize the 1995 blast through a photograph of her lifeless body in the arms of a firefighter. "For someone to make this mistake ... to find them less than a week before he dies ... is unbelievably unfair," she said in Oklahoma City. The Justice Department handed McVeigh's lawyers 3,135 documents it said should have been provided during the discovery phase of his 1997 trial in Denver. The existence of the documents was disclosed Thursday by CBS. Kathleen Treanor, who lost her 4-year-old daughter and in-laws in the April 19, 1995, bombing, criticized the FBI as bungling the case and giving McVeigh the chance to extend his life. "I'm appalled," she said. "The FBI knew from the very beginning that this was a huge case. How could they have possibly made a mistake this huge?" In a letter to McVeigh's attorneys, the Justice Department said the documents consist of FBI reports, including interview notes known as "302s," and photocopies of physical evidence such as "photographs, written correspondence and tapes." The documents came from 45 FBI offices in the United States and one in Paris. A lawyer familiar with the case told The Associated Press that the materials contain information generated by thousands of phone calls made to the FBI after the bombing. They range from identifying a composite drawing of a possible suspect known as John Doe No. 2 to claims of seeing McVeigh elsewhere on the day of the bombing. Legal analysts said the mistake could delay what would be the first federal execution since 1963, though it was unlikely to overturn McVeigh's conviction. An attorney for McVeigh said the materials may prompt a request for a stay. "We're considering all our options," McVeigh lawyer Nathan Chambers said after the documents were delivered to his office in Denver. Chambers spoke to McVeigh about the documents, but he declined to elaborate except to say he couldn't rule anything out yet. Asked Friday on CBS' "The Early Show" whether McVeigh would seek a stay, he said: "The honest question to that is we don't know at this point. There are a number of options that may be available to Mr. McVeigh, and we have a lot of work to do." He gave a similar answer when asked if McVeigh would fight if the government sought a stay. Another McVeigh attorney, Rob Nigh, arrived Thursday night in Indiana. In a recently published book, McVeigh claimed sole responsibility for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds. Since December, when he first asked to end his appeals, he had not shown any interest in fighting his conviction or death sentence. McVeigh's trial judge, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch of Denver, could not be reached for comment. Court clerk James Manspeaker said the defense would have to go to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also in Denver, to file a motion to consider new evidence. Matsch planned no action unless an appeal is filed. "If something is filed he'll take a look at it," Manspeaker said. The legal standard for granting such a motion requires the court to determine the verdict could have been different if the jury had been allowed to see the documents. "The prosecution proved everything to me," said McVeigh juror Doug Carr, 45. "If there was something left out that's in those files, I don't think it was that significant." McVeigh's former trial lawyer, Stephen Jones, said he wouldn't be surprised if the execution was stayed until the documents are reviewed. "There could be a benign interpretation and it could all be irrelevant," Jones said. "On the other hand, it could be a malignant failure to turn over." The Justice Department said the mistake was discovered after an FBI archivist requested bombing-related materials be sent to the Oklahoma field office. The department asked defense attorneys to notify them if they believe the documents throw McVeigh's guilt into question. "While the department is confident the documents do not in any way create any reasonable doubt about McVeigh's guilt and do not contradict his repeated confessions of guilt, the department is concerned that McVeigh's attorneys were not able to review them at the appropriate time," the agency said. Chambers, who has worked on McVeigh's case since December 1998, said he learned about the documents Wednesday, when he received a telephone call from Sean Connelly, a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in Denver. "Here we are a full six years after the bombing and less than a week before Mr. McVeigh's scheduled execution and these reports mysteriously appear. So it's a cause for concern," Chambers said. The lead prosecutor in the trial, Joseph Hartzler, told NBC News that McVeigh is "a master of self-deception and self-worship." "If he wanted the death penalty, he could have stayed in the truck, or walked into the building," Hartzler said. "He doesn't want to die, he's just giving into it because it's inevitable and somehow he thinks this is his way of declaring victory or something." The documents also were delivered Thursday to lawyers for co-defendant Terry Nichols, who was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison. Similar documents formed the basis of a previous, unsuccessful appeal by Nichols, who claimed the papers could have cleared him. ------- Associated Press reporters Karen Gullo in Washington and P. 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