A better question, and a bigger issue is this: what plausible explanation was given for the lack of BATF agents in the building on that day? Could it be that they knew about the attack? If they did, why did they allow it to happen, thus killing those kids in the day care center. If they did, we know who the true criminals are. But this is a good question. Will we ever know the truth?
We may speculate, we may even know the truth. The government however won`t allow a small thing like truth to stand in their way.
IMHO, If McVeigh did what he did, frying or lethal injection is acceptable, he decided to take an action that would potentially cost him his life, gambled and lost.
Yes, he is guilty of murder and I would favour torturing him to death slowly, this is not emotional reactionism, merely a desire for justice and fair punishment. As I have said, I personally believe McVeigh was guilty, this does not make it so, and no jury in the world should have convicted him on what was presented.
Like all terrorists, the price of killing many is the price of being killed. Etc. It's a fair trade from one point of view (though my money says he's shitting bricks right now), unfair from the victim's point of view.
A fairly natural reaction, McVeigh will suffer the most if he is executed, I would imagine that unless you are a deeply religious person the knowledge of your impending death is indeed terrifying. I recall a near miss I had in a car a while ago, I thought I was going to hit an oncoming car and be killed, only lasted about 10 seconds, if that, yet it was the most terrifying experience of my life, going through than for weeks or months is indeed a fitting punishment if he is guilty.
Life sucks. Death sucks even more.
Indeed, sometimes in very dark moments I do believe being dead might be more fun <g>, less to worry over, but the will to self destruction is surrender. Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul@crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul@cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"