The US Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, yesterday announced a one-month delay in the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Mr Ashcroft also ordered an investigation into why the FBI failed to give his lawyers thousands of pages of documents. McVeigh's attorneys said he would review his options because of the misplaced materials.
Mr Ashcroft said he postponed the execution after discovering the FBI had only this week turned over the documents to McVeigh's defence team.
"I have made a decision to postpone the execution of Timothy McVeigh for one month from this day so that the execution would occur on June 11th, 2001, in an effort to allow his attorneys ample time to review these documents," Mr Ashcroft said. President Bush endorsed the decision, saying it was essential to handle the case "with all the guarantees of our Constitution" and adding that McVeigh was "lucky" to be living in the US.