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Tim McVeigh died by lethal injection on June 11, 2001 in Terre Haute federal prison in Indiana. He was executed for planting a powerful fertilizer bomb that destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995 that killed 168 people. When informed that 19 of the victims were young children, he described that as "collatoral damage".
After his execution, President Bush said that it was not vengeance but justice. The truth of the matter is that it was both vengeance and justice. It was vengeance because the relatives of those killed wanted vengeance. It is a basic human instinct to seek revenge. Only when man gets revenge, he feels that justice has been done. Only upon revenge does man feel at peace and feels rested. The exceptions are people of true noble character who would even forgive a killer of their closest relative. Swami Vivekananda taught us to develop such noble qualities within ourselves.
It was justice because if Tim Mcveigh did not receive death punishment, the relatives of those killed would have felt betrayed. They would have felt that justice was not done and this would have led to loss of faith in the justice system of the country.
Tim McVeigh was trained to be a soldier. He was a decorated Gulf War veteran. He was angry at the federal government whom he accused of being too overbearing. He said that he destroyed the federal building in the same way that the U.S. government destroyed a target in Serbia or in Iraq.
But there is a difference. The United States is a world power of highest standing. In this role it has to face challenges, responsibilities and a lot of headaches. Had it not been for the U.S. government, now Kuwait would be a province of Iraq. The U.S. government mobilized the international community to liberate Kuwait from the clutches of Iraq.
Had it not been for the U.S. government led by Bill Clinton, the war in Bosnia would still be raging.
So for Tim McVeigh to justify his actions in this way is wrong.
A thought for all of us
The U.S. government trained McVeigh in military arts and sciences. He used this training to attack the U.S. government. In the same way it is possible that a group of people who are trained in the nuclear sciences by the U.S. government might use their training to launch terrorist attacks within the U.S. Such an attack might kill millions, not just hundreds.
Why was death sentence given instead of life in prison
Some people oppose the death penalty on the ground that it is cruel, and dehumanizing. But the fact of the matter is that death sentence is the highest sentence that can be given, just like the supreme sacrifice that one can make is that of life. Why did Tim McVeigh get so much media attention? It was because he was going to die. Had he been given life sentence, people would have had less interest in his case.
The death penalty dramatizes, and underlines, the awfulness of the crime; it concentrates the mind. The macabre circus around the McVeigh execution was the most necessary part of it. He did the appalling deed. He paid the dreadful price. There is here a cathartic sense of moral symmetry.
Life is a very precious thing indeed. So, when you kill someone, you commit the gravest crime and the gravest punishment you can get for this is death.
The most effective deterrent to crime is not the certainty of punishment, but the likelihood of getting caught. So it is difficult to defend the death penalty on grounds of deterrence. What is impressive is its symbolic power. As I said before, if Timothy McVeigh were just another criminal sentenced to life, nobody would ever have heard of him, let alone discuss it not only around the country but around the world.
Who ever talks about Dr. Harold Shipman of the United Kingdom. Every now and then a small paragraph appears somewhere to correct - upwards - the number of women he murdered which is now said to be more than 300. But if he were due to be executed by lethal injection or by electric chair there would be no end of inflamed discussions about his crimes, and a thereby a sharp focus on the wickedness of what he has done.