The FBI came under fire today for misplacing thousands of pages of documents related to the case of condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh that his lawyer says could thrown the entire case into question.
McVeigh, on death row at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, awaiting execution for the April 19, 1995 bombing which killed 168 people, has yet to comment on the revelations.
But defense attorney Mr Robert Nigh said the 3,100 pages of newly-released documents could affect the case and could lead to an appeal.
"It is certainly possible," he told Fox News Sunday, explaining "The production itself could possibly change the legal outcome of the case."
But, he added, "I'm not prepared to discuss now what the legal implication of those particular documents might be."
Oklahoma Governor Mr Frank Keating appeared outraged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's failure to hand over the documents at the time of the trial.
"If there is information that the agents knew were supposed to be presented at trial in Denver, were not presented in trial at Denver in violation of the discovery order, severe disciplinary action needs to be taken against those people," he told Fox News.
Speaking on the same program, Republican Senator Mr Arlen Specter said if it was determined evidence regarding McVeigh had been deliberately withheld, "that's obstruction of justice and people ought to go to jail."
Both US President George W Bush and Attorney General Mr John Ashcroft have also indicated their displeasure with the FBI's role in the McVeigh drama.
Mr Ashcroft has postponed McVeigh's death by lethal injection from May 16 to June 11, giving McVeigh's attorneys fewer than 30 days to review the papers and decide whether they can appeal the case of the convicted 33-year-old Gulf War veteran.
"We have just begun the process of reviewing the documents, and certainly the materials are relevant," said Mr Nigh, declining to go into details.
Fellow defense attorney Mr Nathan Chambers expressed his concern that perhaps additional documents were still at large.
McVeigh has admitted out of court that he carried out the bombing, considered the worst act of terrorism on US soil. He had previously dropped all his appeals, saying he would rather be executed than spend years in prison.
AFP