McVeigh lawyers say evidence useful

Timothy McVeigh: On death row in Indiana

Defence lawyers acting for convicted Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh say that documents recently released by the FBI would bolster any appeal for a delay in his execution.

No documents created any doubt about his guilt, let alone established his innocence

Attorney-General John Ashcroft

Defence lawyer Rob Nigh said that said some of the documents contained witness statements that could have aided McVeigh's defence at the time of the trial.

He added that McVeigh had not yet decided whether to seek a delay.

However, US Attorney-General John Ashcroft said the FBI documents contained no evidence to occasion a delay, and confirmed that McVeigh would be executed on 11 June.

Mr Ashcroft said documents that were not given by the FBI to McVeigh's lawyers prior to the trial contained no evidence to further delay the execution.

Hunt for John Doe 2

The new documents include information about the FBI's search for an alleged accomplice known as John Doe 2, who never materialised.

"Certainly, I have found information contained within the documents that is more than, 'John Doe 2 looks like my brother-in-law'," Mr Nigh said.

McVeigh claims he acted alone when he blew up the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in 1995, killing 168 people, including 19 children.

The bomb was the worst peacetime attack on US soil

Mr Ashcroft ordered a one-month delay to the execution after the FBI admitted that it had discovered the documents which had not been disclosed to the defence during McVeigh's trial in 1997.

"The first delay of this case was necessary for this review by lawyers for the defence and the prosecution," said Mr Ashcroft.

"A second delay in this case would ignore the evidence and the facts in the case," he added.

The attorney-general emphasised that the belatedly produced documents represented "less than one percent" of the hundreds of thousands of pages of other evidence.

Vigorous opposition

Mr Ashcroft warned that the government would fight any attempts by McVeigh's lawyers to avoid his execution.

"We are prepared to defend McVeigh's conviction and the sentence that has been imposed," he said.

"Any filings that would be made on behalf of Mr McVeigh to avoid the imposition of the sentence would be opposed vigorously by this department."

He said the defence had been given a "reasonable opportunity" to review the documents.

More delays likely

But Ron Kuby, a New York lawyer who has worked on several death penalty cases, told BBC News Online that McVeigh's new lawyer Richard Burr would now be able to delay the execution for months, maybe even years.

McVeigh faces death by lethal injection.

"Burr is capable of slowing down a freight train. There is no way McVeigh is going to be executed 11 June, 11 July, or even 11 June 2002," he said.

"People on death row who want to die are known as 'volunteers' and McVeigh seemed to be one, but in taking on his new lawyer Richard Burr it shows he has changed his mind because Burr does not take on 'volunteers'," he added.

McVeigh is on death row at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he faces death by lethal injection.