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Fake testimony in McVeigh case?
alledan
Member Posts: 19,541
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ten days before Timothy McVeigh was executed, lawyers for FBI lab employees sent an urgent letter to the attention of Attorney General John Ashcroft alleging that a key prosecution witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trial might have given false testimony about forensic evidence.
The allegations involving Stephen Burmeister, now the FBI lab's chief of scientific analysis, were never turned over to McVeigh, though they surfaced as a judge was weighing whether to delay his execution because the government withheld evidence.
The letter, however, was recently turned over to bombing conspirator Terry Nichols who faces another trial on Oklahoma state murder charges.
"Material evidence presented by the government in the OKBOMB prosecution through the testimony of Mr. Burmeister appears to be false, misleading and potentially fabricated," said the June 1, 2001, letter to Ashcroft obtained by The Associated Press.
The letter cited Burmeister's testimony in a civil case as evidence contradicting his earlier McVeigh testimony. It was sent to Ashcroft's general fax number and by courier with the notation "URGENT MATTER FOR THE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL."
Justice officials said Wednesday the letter was routed to Ashcroft's clerical office in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, where it sat for nearly two months and then was forwarded to the FBI -- well after McVeigh was executed.
Neither Ashcroft nor other top officials in the Justice Department who handled the McVeigh case saw the letter, spokeswoman Barbara Comstock said. It was never reviewed to determine if it should be handed over to McVeigh's lawyers, officials said.
Prosecutors are obligated by law to disclose any potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.
McVeigh's lawyers expressed dismay at the revelation. At the time the letter was sent, a judge had dramatically delayed McVeigh's execution by one month because of other evidence the FBI failed to turn over during his trial.
"It is truly shocking and just the latest revelation of government conduct that bankrupts the prosecution, investigation and verdict," said Stephen Jones, McVeigh's lead trial attorney.
Rob Nigh, an Oklahoma attorney who represented McVeigh from trial through his final appeal, added: "Had we had this letter, we would have had additional arguments to make to Judge (Richard) Matsch why the execution should be stayed."
Justice officials could not explain how a letter marked for urgent attention by Ashcroft on an issue that was dominating the headlines could be misrouted, except to say that the outside lawyers should have done more than send it by fax and courier.
Comstock said the Justice Department does not believe the allegations would have affected the outcome. "Court after court has found that the evidence of guilt against McVeigh was overwhelming," she said.
The allegations surfaced in mid-May 2001 when Burmeister, who made a key forensic discovery in the McVeigh case, was being questioned by lawyers for FBI lab employees who had sued the agency. One of the lab employees had been dismissed recently.
A transcript of the deposition obtained by AP shows Justice and FBI lawyers became concerned that statements Burmeister might make would be helpful to McVeigh and Nichols, and they ordered lawyers to cut off that line of questioning.
"We can't have him now second guess his testimony in the McVeigh case," a Justice lawyer interjected. "I mean the effect of that is to embarrass the FBI."
FBI officials stood by Burmeister.
"It didn't happen," FBI lab director Dwight Adams said when asked about the allegations of false testimony. "Steve Burmeister is one of the FBI's finest experts. He is meticulous and honest."
The law firm that sent the letter represents several FBI lab employees, including Frederic Whitehurst, the FBI chemist who trained Burmeister and later made whisteblower allegations that led to widespread reforms inside the FBI lab.
"We believe that these concerns are most serious and that we are under an obligation to turn this information over to you so that you may fulfill your obligation to notify the defendants in the OKBOMB cases about these serious matters and take corrective action," the letter to Ashcroft stated.
Burmeister rose to prominence in the case after he made a surprise discovery of ammonium nitrate crystals embedded in a single piece of the Ryder truck McVeigh used to detonate his deadly explosive that killed more than 160 people at the Alfred P. Murrah building on April 19, 1995.
Burmeister's discovery was key to the government's proof that McVeigh and Nichols had used a giant fertilizer bomb to carry out their attack. Ammonium nitrate is a key ingredient in such a bomb.
McVeigh's defense lawyers attacked the evidence, suggesting the ammonium nitrate, which dissolves in moisture, could not have survived the rain that fell on the Murrah site shortly after the bombing and that it might have come from contamination inside the lab.
At the time of the 1997 trial, the FBI lab had been stung by Whitehurst's allegations of shoddy science and some forensic evidence was kept out of the McVeigh trial because of contamination issues.
But Burmeister's discovery was permitted as evidence in the trial. Burmeister testified the evidence he found could not have been contaminated because he kept his lab examination area locked and that only FBI personnel wearing sterile lab coats and other protective gear had access to the area.
Outsiders "were restricted basically from coming into my work area, into my room," Burmeister testified. "My room was specially locked, and that's where I conducted the examinations."
If lab employees are "coming into my area where I'm going to be handling evidence, they're required to wear protective clothing," he added.
However, the law firm letter to Ashcroft provided citations of sworn testimony from Burmeister in an unrelated civil case showing cleaning crews and a fellow chemist had unrestricted access to Burmeister's work area -- without protective clothing.
"Mr. Burmeister testified that while this chemist shared an office with him, no extra precautions were taken to prevent contamination," the letter said.
The letter further offered Burmeister's own description of the access cleaning crews had to his lab area. "There was a service staff that would come in and buff and wax the floors," he testified, adding he was present working in his suite sometimes when the crews came in.
"I've known them to clean windows in offices and I've seen them stand on the heating elements by the windows," Burmeister added.
Ammonia is one of the ingredients in common window cleaning solution.
Adams, the FBI lab director, said the lawyers took Burmeister's deposition testimony out of context and that the fact that cleaning crews or lab employees in nonsterile clothing accessed his workspace after hours could not account for how the ammonium nitrate crystal became embedded in the truck part.
"You can make what you want to about who has access to the room but the key fact is that crystal was embedded with great force and that could only come from an explosion ... not contamination from some cleaning crew," he said.
The lawyers' letter also stated that during his deposition, Burmeister contradicted testimony on a second matter in the McVeigh case when he testified that the chemical residue PETN found on McVeigh's clothing is "not used for drug purposes anymore."
"At his deposition, Mr. Burmeister contradicted his OKBOMB testimony and admitted that PETN was 'still used for some heart medications,"' the letter to Ashcroft said.
The letter questioned why prosecutors had never corrected the trial record.
Adams said Burmeister qualified his answer at the McVeigh trial by saying it was to the best of his knowledge, that he did not intend to mislead the court and that other witnesses explained to the jury about the multiple uses of PETN.
Where there is no vision,the people perish!
The allegations involving Stephen Burmeister, now the FBI lab's chief of scientific analysis, were never turned over to McVeigh, though they surfaced as a judge was weighing whether to delay his execution because the government withheld evidence.
The letter, however, was recently turned over to bombing conspirator Terry Nichols who faces another trial on Oklahoma state murder charges.
"Material evidence presented by the government in the OKBOMB prosecution through the testimony of Mr. Burmeister appears to be false, misleading and potentially fabricated," said the June 1, 2001, letter to Ashcroft obtained by The Associated Press.
The letter cited Burmeister's testimony in a civil case as evidence contradicting his earlier McVeigh testimony. It was sent to Ashcroft's general fax number and by courier with the notation "URGENT MATTER FOR THE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL."
Justice officials said Wednesday the letter was routed to Ashcroft's clerical office in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, where it sat for nearly two months and then was forwarded to the FBI -- well after McVeigh was executed.
Neither Ashcroft nor other top officials in the Justice Department who handled the McVeigh case saw the letter, spokeswoman Barbara Comstock said. It was never reviewed to determine if it should be handed over to McVeigh's lawyers, officials said.
Prosecutors are obligated by law to disclose any potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.
McVeigh's lawyers expressed dismay at the revelation. At the time the letter was sent, a judge had dramatically delayed McVeigh's execution by one month because of other evidence the FBI failed to turn over during his trial.
"It is truly shocking and just the latest revelation of government conduct that bankrupts the prosecution, investigation and verdict," said Stephen Jones, McVeigh's lead trial attorney.
Rob Nigh, an Oklahoma attorney who represented McVeigh from trial through his final appeal, added: "Had we had this letter, we would have had additional arguments to make to Judge (Richard) Matsch why the execution should be stayed."
Justice officials could not explain how a letter marked for urgent attention by Ashcroft on an issue that was dominating the headlines could be misrouted, except to say that the outside lawyers should have done more than send it by fax and courier.
Comstock said the Justice Department does not believe the allegations would have affected the outcome. "Court after court has found that the evidence of guilt against McVeigh was overwhelming," she said.
The allegations surfaced in mid-May 2001 when Burmeister, who made a key forensic discovery in the McVeigh case, was being questioned by lawyers for FBI lab employees who had sued the agency. One of the lab employees had been dismissed recently.
A transcript of the deposition obtained by AP shows Justice and FBI lawyers became concerned that statements Burmeister might make would be helpful to McVeigh and Nichols, and they ordered lawyers to cut off that line of questioning.
"We can't have him now second guess his testimony in the McVeigh case," a Justice lawyer interjected. "I mean the effect of that is to embarrass the FBI."
FBI officials stood by Burmeister.
"It didn't happen," FBI lab director Dwight Adams said when asked about the allegations of false testimony. "Steve Burmeister is one of the FBI's finest experts. He is meticulous and honest."
The law firm that sent the letter represents several FBI lab employees, including Frederic Whitehurst, the FBI chemist who trained Burmeister and later made whisteblower allegations that led to widespread reforms inside the FBI lab.
"We believe that these concerns are most serious and that we are under an obligation to turn this information over to you so that you may fulfill your obligation to notify the defendants in the OKBOMB cases about these serious matters and take corrective action," the letter to Ashcroft stated.
Burmeister rose to prominence in the case after he made a surprise discovery of ammonium nitrate crystals embedded in a single piece of the Ryder truck McVeigh used to detonate his deadly explosive that killed more than 160 people at the Alfred P. Murrah building on April 19, 1995.
Burmeister's discovery was key to the government's proof that McVeigh and Nichols had used a giant fertilizer bomb to carry out their attack. Ammonium nitrate is a key ingredient in such a bomb.
McVeigh's defense lawyers attacked the evidence, suggesting the ammonium nitrate, which dissolves in moisture, could not have survived the rain that fell on the Murrah site shortly after the bombing and that it might have come from contamination inside the lab.
At the time of the 1997 trial, the FBI lab had been stung by Whitehurst's allegations of shoddy science and some forensic evidence was kept out of the McVeigh trial because of contamination issues.
But Burmeister's discovery was permitted as evidence in the trial. Burmeister testified the evidence he found could not have been contaminated because he kept his lab examination area locked and that only FBI personnel wearing sterile lab coats and other protective gear had access to the area.
Outsiders "were restricted basically from coming into my work area, into my room," Burmeister testified. "My room was specially locked, and that's where I conducted the examinations."
If lab employees are "coming into my area where I'm going to be handling evidence, they're required to wear protective clothing," he added.
However, the law firm letter to Ashcroft provided citations of sworn testimony from Burmeister in an unrelated civil case showing cleaning crews and a fellow chemist had unrestricted access to Burmeister's work area -- without protective clothing.
"Mr. Burmeister testified that while this chemist shared an office with him, no extra precautions were taken to prevent contamination," the letter said.
The letter further offered Burmeister's own description of the access cleaning crews had to his lab area. "There was a service staff that would come in and buff and wax the floors," he testified, adding he was present working in his suite sometimes when the crews came in.
"I've known them to clean windows in offices and I've seen them stand on the heating elements by the windows," Burmeister added.
Ammonia is one of the ingredients in common window cleaning solution.
Adams, the FBI lab director, said the lawyers took Burmeister's deposition testimony out of context and that the fact that cleaning crews or lab employees in nonsterile clothing accessed his workspace after hours could not account for how the ammonium nitrate crystal became embedded in the truck part.
"You can make what you want to about who has access to the room but the key fact is that crystal was embedded with great force and that could only come from an explosion ... not contamination from some cleaning crew," he said.
The lawyers' letter also stated that during his deposition, Burmeister contradicted testimony on a second matter in the McVeigh case when he testified that the chemical residue PETN found on McVeigh's clothing is "not used for drug purposes anymore."
"At his deposition, Mr. Burmeister contradicted his OKBOMB testimony and admitted that PETN was 'still used for some heart medications,"' the letter to Ashcroft said.
The letter questioned why prosecutors had never corrected the trial record.
Adams said Burmeister qualified his answer at the McVeigh trial by saying it was to the best of his knowledge, that he did not intend to mislead the court and that other witnesses explained to the jury about the multiple uses of PETN.
Where there is no vision,the people perish!
Comments
http://www.okcbombing.org/okcphoto_gallery.htm
Greetings,,from Kansas!!!
I asked the ranger if the unidentified leg found in camo BDUs was ever matched to a missing person. This leg remains unidentified. The two that have been convicted were involved but I'm convinced there were more.
If you have one shot...Accu-Shot Website
Even if there was any mid-east money needed for this, which I doubt, this business is primarily about Americans taking action on the anniversary of Waco. That is not good to let go too far. My guess is there were others that came under scrutiny at that time, maybe as "unindicted co-conspirators," and I further guess that some of them are still being surveilled. But I think they were more likely Americans with a grudge, maybe against Reno's people or maybe against that nebulous thing, the "US government." The trouble is, the more you go after a conspiracy of Americans, the more you give credence to any Waco objections being a rationale for OKCITY. A very touchy thing to focus on any further.
Life NRA Member
T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
If you have one shot...Accu-Shot Website
Good stuff with oodles of local OKC news footage that interestingly enough did not get coverage in the national media.
Lots of proven details left out of the story, I'm afraid.
Stand And Be Counted
Don't want to chase anybody off GB; but Soldier of Fortune magazine has been ahead of the curve on this one-way ahead of the curve! They sent a staffer to OKC right after all that happened, and he was showing ATF/FBI dorks the ring gear from the van several blocks away. Seems the gear had a serial number on it that led those incompetents in Gov't service to the owner of the van.
That same staffer saw the Khobar Towers crater and said it looked NOTHING like the one at OKC. Similar materials were used (according to the guys "in the know" at ATF)in both bombings (C-4 versus semtex versus ANFO), yet a gas-enhanced explosive has a higher velocity than all 3! Gas enhanced explosives are what you get when you saturate the area of destruction (the bomb) with butane, propane, heptane, etc. so that the explosion force is greatly enhanced by burning the gas so quickly; it's like twice the original.
Not planning anything; just like to read alot!
If you know it all; you must have been listening.WEAR EAR PROTECTION!
If you have one shot...Accu-Shot Website