Judge Pledges Not To Preside Over Lynching Testimony Of Bombing Victims Will Be Limited

The federal judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case, warning he will not preside over a public “lynching,” severely limited Tuesday much of the emotional testimony from victims that prosecutors had hoped to use in their effort to put Timothy J. McVeigh to death.

But District Judge Richard P. Matsch also restricted some of the defense team’s plans to contend that fatal federal sieges at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, upset many Americans and that McVeigh was caught up in the hysteria that the federal government was overstepping its authority.

“We’re not going to try what actually happened at Waco or Ruby Ridge or those kinds of things,” Matsch said. “Those events have already been the subject of trials.”

In setting the guidelines for the trial’s penalty phase after McVeigh was found guilty Monday of plotting and carrying out the bombing, Matsch told prosecutors he will not allow relatives of the 168 people killed in the explosion or those injured to take the witness stand and express their desire for revenge.

He also ruled he will not permit into evidence pictures of the victims and their family members gathered at weddings, Christmas celebrations or other joyous occasions, or testimony about the funerals for loved ones killed in the April 19, 1995 blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Nor did he agree to the government’s request to show certain videotapes of victims, including one home-made movie of a typical day at the federal credit union before it was destroyed in the Murrah building explosion.

“A penalty phase hearing cannot be turned into some kind of lynching,” Matsch said. “This cannot become a matter of such emotional testimony which would inflame or incite the passions of the jury … as to whether the defendant should be put to death.”

He also ruled that McVeigh need not put himself at potential legal risk if he decides to testify in his own behalf about his political views or the impact that the Waco siege, in which more than 80 members of the Branch Davidian religious cult perished, and the Ruby Ridge standoff, in which the wife and son of a right-wing extremist were killed, had on his decision to bomb the Murrah building.

If he does testify, Matsch said, his statements would not necessarily jeopardize his legal appeals for a new trial and, if he should be granted one, his bid for an acquittal.

“I’m not going to require that any defendant, and certainly not Mr. McVeigh, make a choice between an appeal and the opportunity to testify at his sentencing hearing,” the judge ruled.

McVeigh, 29, was found guilty Monday on all 11 counts in a federal indictment in the bombing case. The verdict by seven men and five women set the stage for the penalty second phase of the trial.

Jurors are to return today to begin hearing testimony and reviewing evidence on whether McVeigh should die by lethal injection or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Anything short of a unanimous verdict to put McVeigh to death will automatically result in the life sentence. By law, Matsch is bound by the jury’s decision.

The judge said he will question the jurors to make sure they still believe - as each indicated during jury selection process - that they can sentence McVeigh to death if they decide that is the appropriate punishment. Those who cannot will be replaced by alternates.

With the stakes so high, the trial’s sentencing phase is expected to be highly combative.

For prosecutors, a life sentence would be a significant failure, given that both President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno had vowed in the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing that those responsible for it would be executed.

For McVeigh’s lawyers, sparing his life would be a major victory, especially in view of the relatively spare defense they mounted on his behalf.

Both sides are expected to take three to four days in presenting their arguments in the sentencing phase. The government, which goes first, plans to call about 40-45 witnesses, the majority of them bombing survivors or relatives of the dead and injured.

They also intend to elicit testimony from rescue workers, physicians and others in presenting a full picture of the horror and continuing pain and anguish from the morning of the bombing.

“We are not trying to inflame the jury or put on a lynching in any way,” said assistant prosecutor Sean Connelly. “We’re not looking to inflame the jury, but to help them make a reasoned moral judgment.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NEXT STEPS What’s next in the Oklahoma City bombing trial: Penalty phase: Jurors begin hearing evidence today. Survivors, victims’ relatives and possibly McVeigh will testify Sentencing: McVeigh faces death by injection, life without parole or the judge’s sentence Death penalty: Execution 60 days or more after sentencing Appeals: Defense can appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Terry Nichols: Same charges as McVeigh; no trial date set State charges: Oklahoma City District Attorney Bob Macy also plans to file murder charges against McVeigh and Nichols SOURCE: News reports Knight-Ridder Tribune