UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 19, 1995
7A
McVeigh refuses request for handwriting sample
The Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — Bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh defied a subpoena and a judge's order yesterday and refused to provide a handwriting sample to a federal grand jury.
McVeigh refused to give a sample of his longhand writing, claiming that he did not often write that way and that using the unfamiliar style would violate his constitutional rights.
The grand jury had asked McVeigh to appear today and give a sample to FBI handwriting experts. The directive requested he write in cursive.
"It has not been for many years his normal way of writing," said Stephen Jones, McVeigh's attorney.
Chief U.S. District Judge David Russell did not immediately hold McVeigh in contempt of court but asked attorneys from both sides to submit briefs within five days in preparation for a contempt hearing.
"I just don't buy that argument." Russell said of McVeigh's claim.
Prosecutors want McVeigh's handwriting samples to compare them with writing on documents related to the case.
McVeigh was brought in handcuffs yesterday to the federal courthouse, across the street from the empty lot where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed by a bomb on April 19.
McVeigh and Terry Nichols are accused of the bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 600.
Sitting in court without the handcuffs, McVeigh was alert and occasionally passed notes to his attorneys during a 20-minute hearing before Russell.
Russell ordered McVeigh to comply with a subpoena in which the grand jury directed that he give a sample to FBI handwriting experts. The defense argued that the request was too broad and resulted from illegal surveillance. It also said that ordering him to write in longhand would involve thought processes protected by the Fifth Amendment.
"There's not going to be any probing of his mental processes," countered Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Connelly. "We just want to get a complete and thorough sample of his physical handwriting."
The prosecution mentioned it wanted to compare written documents, but it wasn't specific. Jones said he believed prosecutors wanted to compare the handwriting on a truck rental agreement that was rented in Junction City.
MeVeighl's attorneys had insisted that he write the sample in front of the grand jury, refusing to follow the more common practice of submitting a sample to FBI agents at the El Reno, Okla, federal prison.
Security was tight outside the courthouse. Armed guards searched private maintenance vehicles before allowing them access into the federal complex. A sparse group of onlookers gathered, some of them tourists looking at the bombing site.
Jones spoke of a change of venue as he stood outside the courthouse and talked to reporters.
"any juror that walks out at lunch sees a very great open space where the Murrah building used to be," Jones said. "People say that we can have a fair trial in this building. That's absurd."
McVeigh and Nichols are being held without bail under a federal anti-terrorism statute that carries the death penalty. The grand jury faces an Aug. 11 deadline to indict both men.
Man executed after appeals denied
The Associated Press
STARKE, Fla. — The state yesterday executed a man convicted 15 years ago of torturing and slaying four men who didn't bring enough cocaine to satisfy a drug deal.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeal of Bernard Bolanar, 42, without dissent less than a half-hour before he was scheduled to die in the electric chair at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m., said Ron Sachs, the governor's chief representative.
In several last-ditch appeals, Bolander's attorneys cited statements obtained in the last week from four prisoners who said co-
defendant Joseph Macker admitted framing Bolander.
Macker pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is now free. Codedefendant Paul Thompson, 49, is scheduled to be released from prison in 27 months.
U. S. District Judge Federico Moreno of Miami previously refused to give Bolander a reprieve Monday, saying the inmates' statements were not the reliable testimony that the U.S. Supreme Court required for canceling an execution.
The jury that convicted Bolander in 1980 recommended life in prison, but Dade Circuit Judge Richard Fuller elevated it to four death sentences.
He was condemned for the killings of John Merino, Scott Bennett, Rudolf Ayan and Nicomedes Hernandez in Miami on Jan. 8, 1980.
They were to sell 44 pounds of cocaine to Bolander, Macker and Thompson at Macker's house but had only two pounds with them.
The victims were forced to strip and then were stabbed, beaten with a baseball bat and tortured for several hours.
Macker testified that Bolander used a hot knife on one victim's back.
Merino was still alive when all four were placed in the trunk of a car that was doused with gasoline and set afire on a highway ramp, court records show.
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