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Breaking News

Ashcroft to Address Possible Delay of McVeigh Execution

Aired May 11, 2001 - 10:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Getting back to our breaking news story, it appears there will be a stay in the execution for Timothy McVeigh. We expect to hear from Attorney General John Ashcroft later today. With more on that, let's go to the Justice Department and Kelli Arena -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. We do expect to hear from Attorney General John Ashcroft around 1:00 today. We are told by the Justice Department spokesperson that it is quite possible that the attorney general will recommend a stay of execution. We are told by many legal experts that this was -- was really the only way that justice could go to protect the integrity of the process.

As I said, we do expect that announcement later on this afternoon. We're also expecting to hear a little bit more from the FBI on exactly how these documents were uncovered, and what was done with them immediately upon knowing that they existed, who they were sent to, and how this possibly could have happened. We did get some reaction to how the FBI has handled this from Senator Leahy earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: The FBI did a superb job in gathering the information. They did not do a great job in covering some of their own internal procedures, and I remember that the FBI director Freeh sent out the message to all of the offices that if they had anything to turn over at the beginning, because the irony is, they knew they had a solid, solid case against McVeigh. Why do anything to screw it up?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: The senator did add that he did not except the revelation of the new documents to affect the outcome, and that is something that the Justice Department has been saying all along as well. It says that the information included in those documents in no way contradicts that Timothy McVeigh is guilty, and law enforcement sources that we have spoken to also reiterate that, saying that their review of those documents do not provide any additional or contradictory information that the defense has already had -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kelli, thank you, and I just wanted to let you know, we're getting word from the Associated Press that the Justice Department, in fact, will ask for a 30-day delay in the execution of Timothy McVeigh. That would be 30 days from May 16 when he was originally scheduled to die on Wednesday.

We will continue to follow this developing story and bring you much more as the news continues here on CNN at the top of the hour. First, a quick break.

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