F.B.I.

Inept? Or Dishonest? Evidence Points to Dishonest If Timothy McVeigh was denied a fair trial, how many others have been similarly denied? Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh will not be executed on Wednesday. He may not even be executed on the new date set by the U.S. Justice Department, June 11. He may not die for years; he may not even die at the hand of the state. Whether you approve of the death penalty or oppose it, the new uncertainty in the McVeigh case can be laid squarely at the feet of the FBI and how it handled the investigation. Last week, in a communication that was said to be almost casual in its tone, a federal attorney informed McVeigh's lawyers that thousands of documents from the investigation hadn't been given to McVeigh's defense team. The official, in an explanation not yet persuasive, said the material had somehow slipped through the cracks, that the failure of investigators and prosecutors to provide McVeigh's lawyers with everything they had was merely a clerical oversight. As a result, the only proper course of action was for Attorney General John Ashcroft to postpone the execution. And he did so even before McVeigh and his lawyers had decided whether to seek their own delay. Because disclosure was not complete, McVeigh may well not have had a fair trial. The evidence not disclosed could have been used in his defense. His lawyers' strategy might have been different. While McVeigh's blame in the bombing is not in dispute, people charged with crimes are entitled to fair trials. Otherwise, we might as well return to the quick, sure vengeance of the lynch mob. McVeigh had prepared himself to die. He seemed to relish the closed-circuit TV coverage. He even wanted his death by lethal injection to be shown to a wider audience. But having come to close to death and having milked it for all the self-proclaimed martyrdom it was worth, McVeigh may now try to use the FBI's foulup to try to have his conviction and sentence overturned. If so, the process could take years. What about others? Americans must realize that the implications involve far more than Timothy McVeigh and his unspeakable crime. (A fellow conspirator, Terry Nichols, serving a life term plans a new appeal as a result of the disclosure). If the FBI and other federal agents were so inept - or so untruthful - in the way they handled what was largely an open-and-shut case, what might they have done in lesser cases, cases where real doubt might exist? How many federal prisoners convicted of such crimes as racketeering, drug trafficking and who knows what are in prison because they didn't get fair trials? How many of those trials might have turned out differently if their lawyers had been provided all the evidence? It's unfair to paint people with too broad a brush, but this is the same FBI that allowed a major spy to operate undetected in its ranks for years. This is the same FBI that withheld evidence in the Birmingham bombing case not only from state investigators but from federal prosecutors. This is the same FBI that seems to harbor a culture of secrecy, arrogance and unlawfulness decades after the death of the once-revered and now-infamous J. Edgar Hoover. It's time for major, uncompromising reform. This is not about just Timothy McVeigh. It's about all of us.

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