Andreas Whittam Smith: Even the Oklahoma bomber should not be executed

'These madmen represent a real danger to the lives of fellow citizens, but not to the United States itself'

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McVeigh executed as victims' relatives look on

McVeigh 'feels the victor'

Vultures gather on the high ground to witness a killing

Killing will hinder the search for McVeigh's helpers

The blue-eyed boy who fled into extremism to escape his troubled past

Leading article: The taking of life is wrong, even if done by the state

How are those who regard the frequent use of the death penalty in American courts as barbaric to view the execution due to take place later today of Timothy McVeigh? He will be given a lethal injection in the Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. McVeigh killed 168 people six years ago by bombing a US government building in Oklahoma City. It was the worst act of terrorism ever carried out on American soil.

The strongest practical argument against the retention of the death penalty has always been the risk of a miscarriage of justice. This is especially high when public opinion is aroused by the heinous nature of a particular crime. The investigators feel almost compelled to make an arrest and to bring charges come what may.

As a result, in the early stages sometimes, a series of suspects are arrested and then released. This one won't do, try the next. Until finally the police believe they have found the perpetrator. At this point the temptation to "improve' the evidence can be very strong.

The judicial process itself can also be affected by the public's demand for punishment. The prosecution believes that it must at all costs secure a conviction. Even the judge's summing-up can be influenced by the desire for vengeance.

Likewise, members of juries, appalled as they may be by the sheer mayhem of, say, a terrorist incident, may suppress any doubts that they entertain. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma tragedy, the idea that some unknown person or political group could wreak mortal damage on such a scale in the heart of America and get away with it was literally intolerable.

Yet judged from 5,000 miles away, the McVeigh case has at least one characteristic of a miscarriage. For at the very last moment, with the date for execution already set for 16 May, came the news that the FBI had withheld thousands of documents that should have been available to the defence at the trial.

The execution had to be postponed, the new evidence examined, the death penalty reconsidered. In the end, however, nothing changed. The judge who ordered the new date for the execution said that whatever in time may be disclosed about the possible actions of others, it will not change the fact that Timothy McVeigh was the instrument of death and destruction.

The reference made to the possible action of others is significant. For McVeigh himself seems to have been trying to live out the legend of the solitary rebel who manages to strike a blow against corrupt central government.

When he finally confessed, although he had been silent throughout his trial, he said that he had deliberately driven from the scene of the crime without licence plates so that he was sure to be arrested. He used to wear a T-shirt on which there was a motto from Thomas Jefferson: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." He is said to be starving himself in order to make his final appearance more dramatic. And he has apparently chosen his last words from a 19th century poem, Invictus: "I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul."

It has suited the FBI to declare that McVeigh acted almost alone, requiring the help of only two others for minor roles; these assistants are serving prison sentences. Yet let us go back to the judge's words: "whatever in time may be disclosed about the possible action of others".

Suppose that the conspiracy theorists, whose numbers are legion, were found to be right. People would surely look again at McVeigh's casting of himself as the lone hero and begin to see that his actions could bear a different interpretation. Was this not a fantasist who had read too many neo-Nazi tracts? Was this not another poor soul who believed that a place in history could be secured by pleading guilty to a crime that he didn't commit? It would heighten suspicions that a miscarriage of justice had occurred.

Now liberals say that all these doubts and difficulties, even in a situation where 168 people are murdered in one go, shows how hard it is to justify retention of the death penalty as a practical measure. But I know, too, that its defenders would shift their ground if an Oklahoma plot was discovered. For conspiracy against the state would change the classification of the crime. It would be less like a ghastly act of single-handed terrorism and more like treason. And if states may go to war and kill the citizens of hostile nations ­ see Serbia and Iraq recently ­ then surely internal enemies may suffer the same fate.

No, I would reply, these madmen hiding out in the backwoods of the United States, plotting and scheming to overthrow the mighty American state, are just that, mentally unbalanced individuals who represent a real danger to the lives of their fellow citizens but not to the United States itself. When convicted, they should be locked up for a very long time. That remains the proportionate punishment, plot or no plot.

aws@globalnet.co.uk