Emotions run high as McVeigh trial begins

March 30, 1997
Web posted at: 9:21 p.m. EST (0221 GMT)

A L S O

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DENVER (CNN) -- It has taken nearly two years, but the trial of Timothy McVeigh begins Monday as lawyers start the crucial process of jury selection.

From a pool of about 400 people across Colorado, 18 jurors will be selected. Jury selection is expected to take about two weeks.

McVeigh and co-defendant Terry Nichols, who will be tried separately, could face death if convicted on federal conspiracy and murder charges in the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people.

Families still suffer

In Oklahoma, crowds gathered at the bomb site on the eve of the trial, remembering those who died.

The trial is particularly painful for victim's relatives such as Edye Smith, the mother of two boys, aged 2 and 3 at the time, who were killed in the bombing.

She says she still has nightmares about their death. (99K/6 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

Prosecutors have prepared her for yet another emotionally wrenching experience -- telling her they plan to use pictures of her children's bodies in opening statements.

"It's really hard when I pull out their favorite shirts and things," she says.

Smith, however, is starting over. In May she is planning to marry local television technician Paul Stowe. She is scheduled to undergo in-vitro fertilization in hopes of having another child.

'Loneliest man'

Others, such as Air Force retiree Roy Sells, whose wife was among the dead, are headed for Denver to watch the entire trial in person.

"I've got to be in that courtroom," Sells says. (99K/7 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

Still, that provides scant solace. "I'm probably the loneliest man in the world," Sells says.

Other relatives -- 315 at a time -- will watch a closed-circuit broadcast of the trial at an Federal Aviation Authority auditorium in Oklahoma City.

Individual questioning

Prospective jurors were expected to be questioned individually before U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch and attorneys for both sides.

After the field of jurors is reduced to 64 people -- each having agreed to consider the death penalty as a punishment, then both sides may dismiss up to 20 without reason.

After the 12 have been selected, six alternates will be chosen.

Prosecutors have said they are eager to get on with the case, but defense attorney Stephen Jones has tried to delay the trial.

Jones has expressed concern that jury candidates were "poisoned" by widespread reports that McVeigh had confessed to the bombing and failed a lie-detector test about co-conspirators. But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his claim that potential jurors were irreparably tainted by the recent stories.

Correspondent Charles Zewe contributed to this report.

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