Justice rips FBI on McVeigh records

Report blames ‘human error’ for lapse in discovery process

By Jim Popkin NBC News Justice Department Producer

March 18 — The Department of Justice’s Inspector General on Tuesday will release a report that examines the FBI’s handling of documents in the Oklahoma City bombing case. NBC News has learned that the 192-page report criticizes the FBI for outmoded computer systems and poor management decisions — “human error” — systemic problems that created a last-minute delay in the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

“THE FBI computer system is antiquated and in need of repair,” the Inspector General’s report states. “But we found that human error, and not the inadequate computer system, was the chief cause of the failure.”

With four days and 18 hours before McVeigh’s scheduled execution last May, the Justice Department abruptly ordered it postponed until June 11 — a 26-day delay.

The reason? The discovery of thousands of pages of FBI investigation reports that should have been turned over to McVeigh’s lawyers before the trial, but were not.

The FBI said at the time that they repeatedly ordered their 56 field offices to turn over all relevant records. FBI officials explained that in preparing to archive the documents, they discovered that more than three-quarters of the field offices never turned in all the records. Not even the prosecutors saw them during the trial.

snip-

Read Complete Article Here