What procedures still need to take place before the execution can proceed? Is he still appealing his conviction? Is he still appealing his sentence? What is the best guess as to how long the process will take?
I figure that because of the high profile of the case, probably 10 or 20 years before they do him in and flush him down the crapper. He has the right to appeal his case for as many times as he has money to pay a lawyer and when that runs out, I figure that a couple of anti-execution groups will front his defense to get the sentence reduced to life in prison.
I figure they just need to shoot the waste of skin, burn him in the prison incinerator and flush his remains down a prison crapper or scatter the ashes in the exercise yard where he can be walked on by thousands of stinky feet over the years. The last thing I read was that it costs $22,000 a year to keep a convict taking up space in jail. I got friends who have to live on half of that.
In Texas, even with its active use of the death penalty, there is at least a 10 year delay.
In Oklahoma it will be longer.
For a federal case, I would guess never. The feds don’t seem to use the death penalty, probably because they would rather leave it to the state.
Assume that each time the case lands in a new court, it adds a full year to the total.
Because he was convicted and given a death sentence in federal court, his first appeal is to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (I think it’s the 5th Circuit covering Oklahoma, but I’m not sure). Then he must file a petition for certiorari (a fancy name for permission to appeal) with the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court takes it, then there’s another year for the appeal to be heard and decided.
If not, he’s exhausted his direct appeals. Now he goes back to the District (trial) Court and files a petition for habeas corpus. The habeas petition is directed at alleged deprivations of constitutional rights, many of which will have already been litigated during the appeals. Nevertheless, because of the severity of the death penalty, habeas petitions in DP cases get a little more scrutiny than others. (In fact, I believe that in some jurisdictions, the first habe in a DP case is required to be filed.) Assuming the habe is denied by the District Court, that denial is appealable to the Circuit Court, and then to the Supreme Court.
Prior to 1986, the defendant could then turn around and start the habeas process all over again, alleging newly discovered evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel on the prior round of habeases, challenges to the constitutionality of the Death Penalty, etc. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”) has somewhat curtailed this by limiting the right to file successive habeas petitions and requiring all habes to be filed within one year of the conviction. Nevertheless, because it’s a DP case, McVeigh would probably file a second habe which would go directly to the Circuit Court for review. Once again, if denied, he could petition for cert before the Supreme Court again. (The Circuit Court might also find that it raises valid issues under the AEDPA and send it to the District Court for further review.)
Another round of habes is usually triggered by the setting of a formal execution date, but, these are typically dealt with on an expedited basis and, unless there is something unusual about the case, they will be denied in short order.
So let’s see, that gives us… [sub]four, carry the two[/sub]… a total of about seven years or so between conviction and imposition of the sentence (direct appeal to the Circuit; petition for cert; habe to the district court; appeal of the habe to the circuit; petition for cert on the habe; second habe in the circuit; petiton for cert on the second habe). More or less. There are also delays while the government sets an execution date, etc. so this can change a bit here and there. Also, that’s assuming that the cases are purused and decided reasonably promptly. Many prisoners will wait months or years before starting the habeas process, or it might get bogged down in a particular court for one reason or another-- lost transcripts or evidence, judges retiring, etc. So adding another year or two on as padding for contingencies is also fair.
That’s the timetable for the federal death penalty. For state death penalties, you first appeal your way through the state system, then file your habes with the federal courts. But at the same time, you can file constitutional challenges with the state supreme court, and the federal courts will often wait until the state supreme court denies the writs before they will rule on them. So this can add another couple of years to the process.
(For what it’s worth, although seven years seems like a long time, it’s actually much faster than the 10-20 year waits that we are used to. By limiting the opportunity to file successive habeas petitions, the AEDPA is intended to speed up the process dramatically. While it hasn’t been around long enough to allow a meaningful analysis of whether it works, early rulings in the courts suggest that it will be interpreted in such a way to accelerate the imposition of death sentences. McVeigh may be one of the first tests of it.
When you consider what it costs in legal fees for all the required appeals, I’d guess that it actually costs the government less to keep them in jail for life. Or if not less, at least not much more.
I don’t know about the federal requirements, but isn’t it true in at least some states that, in a death penalty case, the appeal is automatic, regardless of the perpetrator’s wishes?
This is to provide some sort of check & balance to the trial system, and to make sure that the conviction is (mostly 
) legit.
I’m not sure if the * required * appeals cost more than life imprisonment, but it is definitely true that the average death sentence costs the legal system more, from sentence to execution, than the overhead for keeping the prisoner incarcerated for life.
Of course, that statistic doesn’t account for the fact that the guy imprisoned for life can also run up gigantic appeals expenses trying to get out or get his sentence reduced, and can do it for a longer time. If you compare the combined living expenses and appeals expenses of a death row inmate to a life-imprisoned inmate, I don’t know what you get.
In the UK I work in a Category C jail, which is the third lowest of 4 types.
It costs £15000 a year for each inmate place, going by current excahnge rates that can’t be far off your $22000.
Add to that the central admin costs, probation services possibly support for their families and victims and that goes up somewhat.
A prisoner such as McViegh would definately be a much higher category of prisoner either A or probably the very rare sub category AA and as such the costs of incarceration escalate dramtically, staff inmate ratios are virtually 2:1, everyhere and everthing that the prisoner does will be observed by at least one member of staff, and possibly with dogs and handlers too.
Educated guess but in the UK the highest category prisoners must cost at least £40000 to store, ie two to three times as much as say, your regular drug dealer/repeat burglar etc.
I think you can probably guess that it would cost a good $50-60000 to keep McViegh locked up.
Only one answer here…
Not soon enough!
I don’t think that there is any way of even providing a WAG. The Death Penalty Information Center web site shows that (as of 1999) the last Federal execution was in 1963 (9 years before the Supreme Court found most death penalty cases to be unconstitutional). As to the statement that it costs twice as much to execute someone as to sentence them to life in prison that may be (at least at the time this was first put out) that it took on average 15 years from conviction to execution, and 8 years from sentencing to “life” to parole. As to the number of appeals I believe that someone sentenced to life in prison has the same right to appeal the sentence as someone sentenced to death. IMHO he’ll die of old age before he’s executed. 
not to steer this into a debate that will get this thread moved (although the op itself is somewhat speculative) but…
does anyone besides me question whether mcveigh is even guilty? i was always suspicious of the evidence against him. the media made a big deal about his right wing leanings, but it never seemed to add up to blowing up a building. also, the police sketch they posted before he was caught looked exactly like him. it was as if someone sat him down and drew his portrait. the whole thing smacked of a coverup.
I am not necessarily questioning his guilt, but I’ve always wondered why no one took credit for the bombing. If you were going to kill that many people to make a point, I’d think you (or whatever group you belong to) would want to step up and say why you did what you did.
You know, it would be so much better if this were back 200 years ago and we could just execute him for treason and be done with it. You figure that it would suck enough having the country hate you, why bother drawing it out.
No.
So the problem was that the evidense against him was **TOO/b] good? WTF? You think the local Oklahoma police just happened to have a picture of some slob from rural Michigan sitting around? Or that the government set off the bomb themselves and framed McVeigh for it?
Seen any black helocopters lately?
durn VB codes…
preview is my friend, preview is my friend…
2nd law
that’s my theory. i don’t think the government did it on purpose - they may have had explosives in a van that went off by mistake. mcveigh had been arrested for something else prior to being dragged in for the bombing. i think they may have just picked him out of jail, had someone draw him, and made up a story.
that’s my theory. i don’t think the government did it on purpose - they may have had explosives in a van that went off by mistake. mcveigh had been arrested for something else prior to being dragged in for the bombing. i think they may have just picked him out of jail, had someone draw him, and made up a story. **
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ya the government is always driving around in a ryder truck with enough explosives to do that kind of damage-
why would they have explosives like that in a heavily populated area? do you have any evidence at all? ill bet you think oj simpson was framed too right?
face it, mcveigh and the other guy and whoever else was involved are cowardly child (and adult) killers-
i heard that there are rescue workers who had to work at that blast who are in deep depressions, some quitting their jobs and even committing suicide because of what they saw-
i can understand those murderers being upset about waco, but to do this is beyond my comprehension-
Whoa, Nellie!
The OP is a General Question, even if it apparently defies a certain answer at this time.
“Did he do it?” is a Great Debate.
Ignore zwaldd. He’s just trolling.
zwaldd: kiss mah grits. :wally
As for the Bomb-Boy, the Feds are gonna condemn him to death, & then wait. Until the militia movement dies down, or he gets killed by another inmate, or he dies of old age.
They don’t want him to be a martyr to those bums.
bosda etc.
don’t call me a putz, jerk.
[sideshow mel]my opinion is as valid as the next man’s.[/sideshow mel].
djf750 - i don’t have evidence, but more importantly, i don’t think the prosecution had evidence. for the record, i think oj did it and lee harvey oswald may have had help.
manhattan, sorry for continuing a debate in gq. i’m done.