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| EXECUTION REACTION | |
 June 11, 2001  |
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Betty Ann Bowser reports from Oklahoma City on reaction to the McVeigh execution.
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: As Timothy McVeigh was dying, families of his victims gathered around the empty chairs at Oklahoma City National Memorial. There are 168 of them, one for each person who died in the bombing. John and Gloria Taylor lost their daughter, Theresa Lauderdale. Once the word spread that McVeigh was dead, the Taylors said what they felt was relief. JOHN TAYLOR: It will change, hopefully. As we watch television in the evenings, we won't see Mr. McVeigh coming out of the Prairie County Jail in his orange suit so often. REPORTER: Is that hurtful? JOHN TAYLOR: Yes. It got hurtful after so many repetitions. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Two hundred thirty-two other relatives of victims and survivors chose to watch McVeigh die on a closed-circuit television feed broadcast from this building near the airport. Shortly after he was declared dead, some of them talked with reporters. Kathleen Treanor lost her daughter, Ashley, and her mother and father-in-law in the bombing. |
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| Victims' families respond | ||||||||||||||||||||
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KATHLEEN TREANOR: Today we saw justice. We've waited over six years for what happened today, and I can tell you, from my family's standpoint, we have gathered no joy over seeing another person die for no good reason. But this man clearly deserved what he got. He died peacefully, which I cannot say my... Three members of my family did. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Larry Whicher's brother, Secret Service Agent Alan Whicher, died in the bombing. He described McVeigh's final moments. LARRY WHICHER: He actually lifted his head and looked directly in the camera, as if he was looking directly at us. It was a totally expressionless, blank stare, but his eyes were unblinking. They appeared to me to be coal black, and he didn't need to make a statement. I truly believe that his eyes were telling me... He had a look of defiance, and that if he could, he would do it all over again. BETTY ANN BOWSER: When the bomb went off at 9:02 in the morning six years ago, people heard the explosion miles away. Newly elected Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating heard it at the state capitol. He lost three good friends that morning, and he is glad Timothy McVeigh is gone. GOV. FRANK KEATING, Oklahoma: We will not have to hear him, not be mocked by him, not have to have him call our children "collateral damage." We won't have to listen to that anymore. We don't have to see it anymore. We don't have to think about it. It's not that big scar, that scab, that hole in our soul. It won't be there anymore. |
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| Preparing for the execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: Over the weekend, Oklahomans prepared themselves for the execution in a variety of different ways. Attendance at the Oklahoma City National Memorial was way up. WOMAN: Hi. I'd like to go out to see my uncle's chair. He was on the fifth floor. BETTY ANN BOWSER: A niece came to touch the chair placed in the memorial to honor her uncle's memory. MAN: You may have to do the other ones. MAN: I can help you over that. No problem. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Psychologist Dr. Paul Heath lived through the bombing. For the past six years, he has led the organization of survivors that has hundreds of members. On Saturday, he gave friends from out of town a tour of the site. DR. PAUL HEATH: The idea of the chair is to sit on it and remember what she did, or what any of these people did. It's not a cemetery. It's a memory chair. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Heath was haunted by the fact that the week before the bombing, McVeigh came to his office in the federal building, ostensibly to apply for a job, when in reality McVeigh was casing out the building. Heath was also thinking about the execution. DR. PAUL HEATH: For me, this is VE Day on Monday-- "victory over evil." Fortunately for me, my mother taught me forgiveness is a gift you give yourself, and I was able to do that on a personal level for what Tim McVeigh tried to do to me personally. And as you may or may not recall, he was in my office on Thursday before the bombing, and I had to live with the fact that he was so gentle to talk to, I did not recognize the potential for violence-- that he would come back, then, the following Wednesday, and perpetrate not only on me, but on America... (Choir singing ) |
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| A death for a death? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: Mayflower Congregational Church counts two bombing survivors and the daughter of a victim among its flock. Yesterday, Pastor Robyn Meyers had a prayer for them, and a plea. PASTOR ROBYN MEYERS: For all those who suffered these last six years the agony of the bombing, we pray for peace and for healing and for moving on. But we also pray for a different kind of world, one that encourages us to think in new ways about justice and a chance to speak a second opinion into the ear of a nation that calls for death to answer death. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Many of Meyers' parishioners share his views against the death penalty, even one who nearly died at the hands of Timothy McVeigh. Rob Roddy was working in the federal building when the bomb went off. Although he is an ardent opponent of the death penalty, McVeigh's lack of remorse and arrogant attitude about what he did made Roddy question his beliefs. ROB RODDY: Before the bomb, I strongly opposed the death penalty, and I had for a number of years. After the bomb, for two or three months, I really struggled with it. I thought, my God, if there's ever a reason that we need... If there's ever anything that says we need to execute someone, this is. And my wife asked me one day when we were driving, you know, how do I feel about the death penalty now? And I had to admit to her I was really struggling with it, and I did, as I say, for about two months, and eventually I realized that if this bomb... If these people and this incident cost me my core beliefs, my core values, then that's made me even more of a victim than I had been. WOMAN: Do you want me to move my little hedgehog? BETTY ANN BOWSER: Kathleen Treanor and her family spent the weekend working around the house, but she was thinking a lot about today and what it would be like. KATHLEEN TREANOR: I'm a very visual person. I... Reality doesn't happen for me very well unless I can actually see it. It was really hard for me to think of my daughter as dead because, you know, I kissed a very happy and healthy four- year-old good-bye one morning, and then I buried a box, you know, the... I never saw her again. And it was a very hard thing for me to understand. I kept looking for her for months and months and months after the bombing. I've looked for her. I mean, every little blonde- haired, blue-eyed girl, I'd look at them really close, thinking, oh, my God, there's my Ashley. And it was hard. It was a very hard reality for me to come to, that she was actually dead, and I think it's the same thing with McVeigh. If I see him die, then I'll know he can't hurt me, he can't hurt my kids, he can't hurt us anymore. And that's why I need to see it. KATHLEEN TREANOR: That's a photo I carried inside of my daughter. BETTY ANN BOWSER: And when the execution was over, Treanor needed to see the memorial and daughter Ashley's chair once again. She was joined by other people who lost loved ones on April 19, 1995. There were hugs, there were tears and prayers, but no tears were shed for Timothy McVeigh. |
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