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Surviving victims bombed by ruling

editorial cartoon by Kevin Johnstone
editorial cartoon by Kevin Johnstone

When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, Okla. exploded on April 19, 1995 at 9:02 a.m. Central Standard Time, it took the lives of 167 Americans. Among the dead were children. Angry and hurt, Americans immediately searched for foreign terrorists responsible for the heinous crime.

When the perpetrators were arrested and found to be Americans, the families of the victims, the state of Oklahoma and the entire country were shocked. After all, who could ever forget watching television and seeing the young grieving mother clutching a teddy bear with hopes that her two children would come out of the rubble alive? And what about the images of civilians hurt by the blast but still heroic enough to go back into the building to pull out those who needed assistance; or the picture that ran in newspapers across the country of a valiant fireman holding the lifeless body of a toddler in his arms? No one will probably ever forget the bitter images or the empty void of innocence during the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Now, the trial of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols is in its early stages. In order for McVeigh and Nichols to receive a fair trial and to ensure them an impartial jury of their peers, one of the first rulings made was to move the trial away from Oklahoma City.

The judge cited Lawton, Okla. as the proper place for the trial to be held for a couple of reasons. First, it would be easier to find a jury that is more detached from the bombing. Second, the judge ordered the trial to be moved to Lawton for the convenience of the defendants and witnesses. However, because the courtroom facilities were deemed inadequate to host a trial of that caliber in Lawton, talks of moving the trial to Tulsa, Okla. began.

The defendants argued that a trial held anywhere in the state of Oklahoma could not be fair. The basis for their argument was that too much media coverage had been given to the bombing and that everyone in the state of Oklahoma has been subjected to heavy bias toward their guilt. Thus, Judge Richard Matsch granted the defendant’s request for the trial to be moved to Denver, Colo., 660 miles away from the crime scene.

For the defense to argue in favor of moving the trial on the basis that there was heavy media coverage in Oklahoma is ludicrous. First of all, media coverage on the Oklahoma City bombing was, and is, still prevalent across the country. The defense claims that every Oklahoman is prejudiced toward their client. Almost every American citizen is aware and perhaps even holds a sense of anger toward McVeigh and Nichols. The court must realize that moving the trial to a different state does not erase the prejudice against the two accused men.

The families of the victims have been completely overlooked by this decision. Because of the distance, some members of the victims’ families are not able to attend the trial at all. They are denied the right to attend the court proceedings of the men who are assumed to be responsible for the death of their loved ones. They are denied an important part of the healing process that most families of murdered victims are allowed. The rights of the accused have overshadowed the rights of the victims and their families. The victims and their surviving families have become the victims once again.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

Kevin Johnstone
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