LV group protests death penalty

Jace Radke and Ed Koch

Monday, June 11, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

About 20 people gathered in front of the George Federal Building on Sunday afternoon to mourn those killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and to protest today's federal execution of convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh.

The group, made up of church representatives and those associated with the Clark County Coalition Against the Death Penalty, placed flowers on a portable memorial board for each of the 168 people killed in the bombing, then placed another for McVeigh.

The Rev. Phil Hauskemcht, of the Angelical Lutheran Church of America, said that he was at the protest to mourn, but did not want to see the killing cycle perpetuated.

"Capital punishment does not solve the problem of violence," Hauskemcht said. "The problem of violence is solved in forgiveness."

Other local critics of the death penalty, such as Richard Siegel, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, say that while McVeigh's death will satisfy those seeking revenge against his act, the cause in favor of the death penalty is not best served by such a Stone Age philosophy.

"Revenge is so Neanderthal, it delegitimatizes the argument for having the death penalty," Siegel, a professor of political science at UNR, said last month.

"Our belief is that life without the possibility of parole is stronger retribution than the death penalty. It also is less expensive to house a person (in the general prison population) than to go through a costly appeals process and the long-term maximum security of death row."

McVeigh, 33, was convicted in 1997 of conspiracy, using a weapon of mass destruction and murdering eight federal law enforcement officers by masterminding the April 19, 1995, explosion that killed 168 people, including 19 children. It is considered the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

Terry Nichols, formerly of Las Vegas, also was convicted in federal court of a lesser role in the bombing. He has appealed that verdict and awaits a trial in Oklahoma, where, if convicted, he too could get the death penalty.

Nichols' ex-wife and son live in Las Vegas. Attempts to get interviews with them were not successful.

Siegel said studies show that support for the death penalty in the United States has gone down from 80 percent to 65 percent in the past two years.

Yet Siegel also admits the McVeigh execution does not help the cause of death penalty opponents, because McVeigh is so hated and he has confessed he did the bombing, giving government officials peace of mind that they have put to death the right person.

"Clearly his (McVeigh's) death is viewed as more acceptable" than that of other death row inmates, Siegel said. "But there is concern about the (4,500) pages of FBI documents that were not made available to the defense for McVeigh's trial.

"This is in line with a pattern of a lack of due process and a big reason why support for the death penalty is declining."

Protester Laurrie Bullock said that the death penalty is against her beliefs and unacceptable as a means of punishment.

"If human life is truly sacred, we cannot kill the killers," Bullock said.

The group quoted verses from the Bible, as a security guard looked on from the steps of the federal building.

Before leaving, the group chanted Ezekiel 33:11: "As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live."

The protesters read the names of each of the people killed in the bombing, and held banners that read, "All life is sacred" and "In our names don't kill."