Editorial Opinions
On April 19, 1995 the deadliest act of terrorism took place on U.S. soil when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed, killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, was convicted of the bombing under the Anti-Terrorism Law in 1997 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. This will be the first Federal execution since 1963. Recently, the FBI released new documents as evidence in the 1997 trial of the Oklahoma bombing. More than 4,000 documents were withheld until days before the day of execution. One of McVeigh's attorneys, Robert Nigh, claims the Federal Government committed fraud by not turning over the documents until now and believes more documents exist which the Government has not released. However the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, stated that the newly released documents would do nothing but support the guilty verdict. Since the execution was only a few days away, Ashcroft permitted McVeigh's attorneys until June 11 to examine the new documents. The defense team asked Dist
ABCNEWS.com uses the headline "Federal Judge Denies McVeigh Stay". CBC News uses "No delay of execution for McVeigh". What makes these articles stand apart are the words chosen by the writers. ABCNEWS.com's use of "Federal Judge" gives the article more authority. By capitalizing the word "Denies", the action becomes certainly irrevocable, in conjunction with the use of Federal Judge. rict Court Judge Richard Matsch for more time in order to explore grounds for a new trial and asked for an explanation from the government. McVeigh surprised many by allowing his defense team to pursue a stay. Previously, he told reporters that he had accepted the judgment against him and would not pursue appeals to delay his death. Of the two articles, ABC's is the longest story. The headline refers to the hearing to request the stay of McVeigh's execution but a good portion of the article itself is of the original trial. ABC's article not only reports the verdict handed down by Judge Matsch but also goes further into the
Some common words found in the essay are:
Judge Matsch, Judge CBC, Richard Matsch, John Ashcroft, Recently FBI, Federal Judge, Stay CBC, Anti-Terrorism Law, Federal Government, Law McVeigh, defense team, federal judge, 1997 trial, judge matsch, word execution, request stay, released documents, mcveigh's attorneys, death penalty, anti-terrorism law,
Approximate Word count = 689
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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