Reply #40: Once convicted, there's no way he could have not been executed. [View All]

But if there was no federal DP, McVeigh might have one day realized that what he did was wrong, and had something to say about RW terrorism. Not to mention that it prevented him from revealing the identities of others in the plot. Instead, he let the government make a martyr of him.

We lost a valuable intelligence source because of our eagerness to kill. It benefitted no one but the RW terrorists.

EDIT: The RW takeover had been going on a long time before McVeigh's trial. Any attempt by the administration or justice department to delay his execution would have brought howls of condemnation from the RW, which already controlled congress and the senate, by that time. And Clinton could hardly have come out against the execution, having placed himself firmly in the DP camp during the elections.