The best laid plans...

The attorney-general announced the execution delay

By BBC News Online's Kevin Anderson

Advance teams from major US media outlets began arriving at Terre Haute federal prison in Indiana last Tuesday to begin preparations for covering the execution of convicted Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Carpenters were busy building platforms where news anchors would stand delivering reports about McVeigh's last hours.

Tents and trailers to house the 1,400 members of the media and their support staff were already set up.

Oklahoma bombing: 168 people were killed

But a one-month delay in the execution led to the media - and prison officials and the town of Terre Haute - scrambling to make changes.

The preparations of major news organisations had been under way since the date of the execution was announced in January.

In April, more than 150 members of the media came to Terre Haute just to be briefed by the US Bureau of Prisons on what to expect at the first federal execution in 38 years.

The numbers for the real thing were expected to be even greater.

Work on tents, extra electricity and phone lines had began more than a week before the scheduled execution date.

The sharper local residents began offering to rent out their front lawns for $1,000 a day for use as parking slots for the satellite trucks.

But it was all so much wasted effort.

Once the delay in the execution was announced, news organisations had to undertake yet more feats of complex logistics.

Local hotels that had been booked full for months were deluged with calls cancelling reservations for next week - and rebooking for June.