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Fourteen Years Ago: A Look Back

By Jeralyn, Section Oklahoma City Bombing
Posted on Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 08:22:00 AM EST
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April 19, 1995. It was the largest act of domestic terrorism in the history of the country. Until September 11, it was the largest act of mass murder in the United States. It left 168 people dead and more than 500 people injured.

It was a massive case (pdf) to defend. There were:

  • 30,000 interviews of witnesses taken by the FBI and other government agencies.
  • More than 200,000 photographs
  • Records of 156 million telephone calls and over one million hotel and motel registrations
  • Over 500 hours of audio tape and over 400 hours of video tape.
  • 25,000 pages of lab reports and worksheets
  • 23,000 pieces of evidence

It cost the Government $82 million to investigate and prosecute and $10 to $15 million to defend.[More...]

Defense experts included those in the fields of: explosives, bomb trace analysis, terrorism, medical disciplines (internal medicine, psychiatry and psychology) eyewitness identification, handwriting and forensic document analysis, firearms, toolmarks, tire imprints, fingerprints, voice identification, hair and fiber, chemistry, anthropology, computer programming, audio and video analysis, victim impact evidence, death penalty mitigation, jury selection and demographics -- there were even experts on Waco, Iraq and gun control.

It was a case that consumed 1 1/2 years of my life. When it was all said and done, our client was executed. His co-defendant is serving life without parole at Supermax in Florence, Colorado.

It was the Oklahoma City Bombing....14 years ago today.

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