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- OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Grand jurors investigating the Oklahoma City bombing
say they have been frustrated by "blatant attempts to improperly intimidate
and influence" the outcome of their work.
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- In the five-page interim report, the
Oklahoma County grand jury referred to attempts to influence the panel
in general terms and did not name any one person.
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- The grand jury was impaneled last year
to investigate an alleged conspiracy in the planning and carrying out of
the April 19, 1995, bombing. There also were allegations that the government
had prior knowledge.
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- The panel said someone has anonymously
contacted one or more grand jurors at home. "We are offended by the
improper and perhaps illegal attempts to exert influence on the outcome
of ourinvestigation," the grand jury wrote in the report issued Wednesday.
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- Assistant District Attorney Patrick Morgan,
the panel's legal adviser, would not say whether those contacts are being
investigated.
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- The grand jury also said its investigation
had been marred by public statements attacking its work.
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- "Although we recognize and respect
everyone's right to their own opinion, we are frustrated with constant
unfounded public statements by some persons who claim to have special standing
in the matter attacking us and those who work for us," the report
said.
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- "Those comments serve no useful
purpose and we view them as blatant attempts to improperly intimidate and
influence us," it said.
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- The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others. Timothy McVeigh
and Terry Nichols were convicted by federal juries.
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- Nichols was sentenced to life in prison
for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter. McVeigh, convicted of murdering
eight federal agents and other charges, was sentenced to death.
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- An appeals court earlier this week ordered
evidence used in those trials to be turned over to Oklahoma authorities
who want to prosecute the two for the deaths of the other 160 people killed
in the bombing. Seven of those were not on federal property when the truck
bomb exploded.
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- Republican state Rep. Charles Key, who
led the petition drive to convene the county grand jury, alleges that the
government knew about the bombing ahead of time but did nothing to prevent
the blast.
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