Suspect Says He’s Innocent, Wants To Testify

Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh says he never has touched a bomb and wants to testify at his trial “so jurors know me and not what they’ve read,” Time magazine reports.

“People have to realize that 90 percent of the case that people think they have, it has all been through nonverifiable leaks,” McVeigh was quoted as saying in the magazine’s April 15 issue, due on newsstands today. “And I think you would be surprised how much those leaks are bogus. Especially through eyewitnesses.”

The interview with McVeigh took place in a federal prison in Oklahoma last month just before he and fellow suspect Terry Nichols were transferred to Colorado, where their trial will be held.

In the interview, McVeigh maintained his innocence in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building which killed 168 people and injured more than 500. McVeigh and Nichols face the death penalty if convicted of federal murder and conspiracy charges.

McVeigh said he has been falsely labeled a “speed freak,” “gun freak” and “loner” and wants to testify at his trial “so jurors know me and not what they’ve read.”

Time said McVeigh refused to discuss specific evidence or disclose where he was on the morning of the bombing, saying, “We’re saving that for the trial.”

But he did deny that he ever had built a bomb. “I’ve never had my hand on one. I used to watch other people do it. I won’t go into that,” McVeigh said. “There were plastic soda bottles. They would put vinegar and baking soda in and screw the cap on and it would burst.”

The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Nichols had told federal authorities he and McVeigh had learned how to make bombs while they were selling military surplus items at gun shows around the country in 1994 and 1995.

Nichols’ brother James Nichols announced last week that he is working on a book that will prove Terry’s innocence.

“Terry wasn’t there, plain and simple. And if he was, if he had something to do with it, that would be the end of it. I wouldn’t support him,” James Nichols was quoted as saying in the Sunday edition of The Detroit News. “There isn’t any doubt about his innocence.”