Opinion: Justice has been done in the McVeigh case

It was a traumatic experience reading the Times headline on June 11, Execution day, followed by a list of the 168 people who died in the terrorist bombing at Oklahoma City. The bomber was a young man who turned against his country and decided that killing innocent men, women and children was his way of "getting even."

In America, we have a system of government that allows individuals to seek redress for real or imagined wrongs by the vote and through legal actions. America offered the bomber every opportunity to become a decent and useful citizen. He chose to become a terrorist, mass murderer and a disgrace to his country.

I hope that everyone who has suffered personally from Timothy McVeigh's act of terrorism will find some comfort and closure now that justice has been done. Let us hope and pray that America will never experience such an atrocity ever again.
-- William A. Crutchfield, Brooksville

Is any one better off?

Re: Timothy McVeigh.

Monday was a sad day for so many people -- the families of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh's family, and those who see our humanity diminished every time we exact state-sanctioned, mass-approved revenge on another human being. Are any of us better off, now that Timothy McVeigh is dead? Despite our collective view of him as a monster, he was someone's little boy. Someone is suffering through the loss of their child today on top of the overwhelming suffering that must come with the knowledge that your child has committed such an atrocious crime.

I can't imagine the families of the bombing victims are any better off now either. No matter how much they may have hated McVeigh, in all of their anguish and anger, I can't imagine how they can derive much satisfaction from his execution, much less the actual witnessing of his execution, which will prove traumatic for many of them. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people without remorse or any apparent feeling. There can be no justice for a crime that enormous. We want him to feel our anguish. We want him to suffer. But we can't force him to feel remorse, to feel the weight of our pain. We can kill him, maybe torture him, but we can't get inside his head and shake him, make him see what he's done, make him feel. That would be justice, as I very much doubt that the physical pain and suffering of those who lost their lives can even approach the emotional pain and suffering of those left to survive their loss.

When we kill him, we only get the satisfaction of our revenge, and we commit our own injustice in causing the further suffering of the innocents who love him -- neither of which elevates us above McVeigh himself, above our basest selves. Nobody wins and it's a sad day for all of us.
-- Lynn Allen, Tampa

Turning a murderer into a celebrity

Re: Execution day front page.

I am a regular reader and often a fan of the Times, but Monday I was appalled by your front page.

I am sure someone at the paper will claim that printing the names of all the people who died in the Oklahoma City bombing was comparable to the Vietnam War Memorial's listing names of the dead. It was anything but that -- because it used those names not as a solemn message, but as a graphic design to set off the face of the man convicted of killing them.

It degraded everyone of his victims and glorified him.

Twenty years ago I had the privilege of discussing capital punishment with one of the country's outstanding young capital defense attorneys, David I. Bruck of South Carolina. Bruck is a quiet, unassuming person, not at all the stereotypical trial lawyer. He said one of the reasons he personally opposes capital punishment is, "Because it makes celebrities of murderers."

The Times certainly did that on Monday.
-- Melissa Metcalfe, St. Petersburg

Let obscurity be his fate

Regardless of one's stance on the death penalty, few would argue that Timothy McVeigh is anything but a cold-blooded killer. This is an appeal to the media to not portray him as anything else, whether that be as a victim, ideologue or misunderstood anarchist. McVeigh would like us to remember him as an anti-government warrior, with his stoic stares and defiant poem, when in fact he was nothing but a pathetic coward.

Rather than attempting to change the government by legitimate means, or trying to affect those in power, he needlessly murdered dozens of innocent, low-level government workers, thus committing not only one of the most evil and cowardly acts in American history but also one of the most senseless acts one can remember.

Certainly his execution has caused quite a stir in the media, but it is essential that the media do not make him out to be more than he was, a delusional loser. In fact the media should cease speculating into what made McVeigh really "tick" or what he "really stood for." Do not taint the memory of the 168 true victims of this tragedy. History is the final judge, and I fervently ask you, the media, to do your part in giving Timothy McVeigh his final and most important judgment: obscurity.
-- John K. Shamsey, Sarasota

He didn't merit the attention

I find it appalling that your newspaper would use so much space to write about the death of Timothy McVeigh. He did a despicable thing and it should not be made to look as though his demise was worth all of the attention that your newspaper gave to him.

I realize that all of the news is not happy, but it should not have been made to seem that he did something worthwhile. He committed a horrible crime!
-- Audrey Kopelman, St. Pete Beach

Don't give publicity to sick minds

The decision to put Timothy McVeigh's picture on half of your front page Monday and the headline McVeigh "feels he is the victor," demonstrate, at the least, an incredible lack of good judgment, and a sensationalism not worthy of the St. Petersburg Times. Perhaps a light gray, faded picture with the names of his victims in bold letters would have been somewhat more justifiable. More appropriate would have been a simple article informing people after the execution had been carried out.

Our government was forced by McVeigh's actions to kill one of its citizens in the name of justice. We shouldn't revel in this necessity. As long as we continue to glorify violence and give publicity to the sickest minds our country produces, we will continue to encourage such lunacy. I am disappointed in your paper.
Judith F. Gordon, Seminole

He should have died without recognition

Re: Timothy McVeigh.

How dare you immortalize this monster with his photo superimposed over the names of his victims. This man (if you can call him that) was not a martyr for any cause. This person was a coward. He deserved to die without fanfare, without a media circus, without recognition. No front-page special.
Lee Achterhof, Clearwater

Executions only add to the bloodshed

What Timothy McVeigh did was unconscionable, and on that we can all agree. However, by the act of executing someone, the government has said that killing people is wrong, so we're going to show just how wrong it is by killing you!

People on the pro-death penalty side of the issue fail to realize that the states that have the death penalty also have the highest murder rates. Obviously the murderers are learning some kind of a lesson. It's just not the one the states had in mind. There is no evidence to support the claim that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. Actually the facts demonstrate that it's contraindicated.

People on the pro-death penalty side of the issue fail to realize that the death penalty has absolutely nothing to do with justice. It's nothing more than revenge and retribution. Sure, were my family killed in that tragedy, I'd be filled with anger, hatred, sorrow, remorse and probably some other emotions that I've fortunately never experienced. But that does not in any way give me the right to ask that someone else, or the state, become a murderer on my behalf. "You kill mine so I'll kill yours" only feeds the thirst for more blood.
-- Douglas Steel, Gulfport

Words of value

The night before Timothy McVeigh was executed I was thoroughly fed up with the media coverage of him. If there could have been only a small notice of his survivors on the obituary page, it would have suited me fine: I don't read the obituary column.

The next morning, when the Times front page was full of the victims names, I felt about as low as you can get. But then I went back to Sunday's paper and read senior correspondent Susan Taylor Martin's humorous and, as always, informative column about Britain's royal family, and I started to feel upbeat. Then I read Mary Jo Melone's incisive column about William Ernest Henley and his poem Invictus (The last deluded words of a lost soul). It is her gift to turn something distasteful into something that is of value to the reader.

Later when relatives of the victims expressed disappointment that McVeigh had had the last word with his poem, I thought how lucky we are to have such gifted writers in the Times. Mary Jo Melone said it best when she wrote that McVeigh was not worthy of the words, "May God have mercy on your soul."
-- Richard S. Lee, Largo

Hateful venom

I have read with mixed opinion many of the controversial articles generated by Mary Jo Melone. However, her Sunday column (The last deluded words of a lost soul) regarding Timothy McVeigh and her suggesting to your readers that God's mercy and grace be withheld from him was most unsettling. It is hubris to presume a province well beyond her mortal reach.

That she was allowed to cast this hateful venom into the homes of your readership lies squarely at your feet.
-- Bill Harris, Ruskin

Cartoon was cruel

Re: Michael Ramirez editorial cartoon, June 13.

I read the Times every morning. I enjoy reading your newspaper, and I especially enjoy reading the editorial page. I like the diversity of syndicated columnists you print. Almost every day I am challenged by what I read.

On Wednesday, I opened the paper to find a very disturbing political cartoon by Michael Ramirez. The political cartoons you run are poignant and funny and always make a point. This cartoon is cruel. I am sorry and disappointed with your decision to print this.
-- Kay W. Aude, Clearwater

Re: Michael Ramirez's Oklahoma Memorial cartoon.

I find Ramirez's ideology very disturbing. The Oklahoma Memorial expresses sadness for all those who were innocently murdered by Timothy McVeigh. Pray tell, what's next? Shall I dare to think that perhaps Ramirez's warped sense of humor might lead us to view McVeigh memorialized at Arlington Cemetery!
-- Estelle Rodman, Bayonet Point

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