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Timeline Of An Execution

Still publicly unrepentant for taking 168 lives in the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to be executed Monday by lethal injection at the U.S. Federal Prison, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

McVeigh's execution would be the first by the federal government since 1963.

The following is an outline of what lies ahead:

Sunday, June 10, 2001

  • 7 a.m. CT: Deadline for moving McVeigh from his cell to the Execution Building.
  • 7 a.m. CT: Excluding calls to his attorneys and calls approved by the warden, Harley Lappin, McVeigh's telephone privileges will be terminated.
  • 11 p.m. CT: Prison officials' press briefing.
  • McVeigh eats his final meal (between 7 p.m. CT and 4 a.m. CT Monday)

    Monday June 11, 2001

  • 5 a.m. CT: The last non-contact visit between McVeigh and his attorneys and spiritual advisor.
  • 5 a.m. CT: Prison officials' press briefing.
  • 6 a.m. CT: Guards will escort McVeigh to the execution room, where he will be restrained to a chair. IV's will be inserted to carry the lethal drugs. The 10 public and 10 media witnesses will be admitted into adjoining witness rooms, along with five that McVeigh has selected.
  • 7 a.m. CT: The black drapes will part in the witnesses' rooms revealing the Execution Room. McVeigh will be allowed to say his last words. It has been reported that has chosen as his last words: "It matters not how strait the gate; How charged with punishments the scroll; I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul," an excerpt from William Ernest Henley's 19th-century poem "Invictus."
  • At a few minutes past 7 a.m. CT, the lethal chemicals sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride will be pumped into McVeigh's veins. It should take about eight minutes for McVeigh to die. The warden will announce the time of death and the drapes will close.
  • 15 minutes after the execution, there will be a post-execution briefing.

    McVeigh has obtained an agreement from the local coroner that there will be no autopsy of his remains. No formal announcement on the disposal of his remains has been made, though his father, Bill McVeigh, has said McVeigh asked for cremation, with the ashes to be turned over to his Tulsa-based lawyer Rob Nigh.

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