Matsch orders McVeigh personal items to be given to attorney

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An order by the federal judge who presided over the trial of Timothy McVeigh will allow the Oklahoma City bomber's attorney to turn over personal items to McVeigh's family.

Thursday, September 12th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An order by the federal judge who presided over the trial of Timothy McVeigh will allow the Oklahoma City bomber's attorney to turn over personal items to McVeigh's family.

U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch's order issued Wednesday outlined the disposal process for the more than 1,000 exhibits in the trials.

The orders specifies that exhibits introduced as evidence by McVeigh's lawyers should go to Tulsa attorney Rob Nigh Jr.

Exhibits used as prosecution evidence will be turned over to federal prosecutors.

Nigh represented McVeigh for about five years until McVeigh was executed June 11, 2001, for bombing the Oklahoma federal building in 1995.

The attorney said he plans to give items such as McVeigh's Army medals and commendations to McVeigh's relatives.

Defense lawyers introduced those items during the penalty phase of his trial to show that McVeigh had been an outstanding soldier during the Persian Gulf War and should not be sentenced to death.

Prosecutors will get large pieces of the Ryder truck McVeigh used to carry the explosives for the bombing and a .45-caliber Glock pistol that was seized from him after the blast.

Matsch ruled that exhibits used in Nichols' trial will be retained by the court in Denver. Nichols is now facing trial on 160 state murder counts in Oklahoma.

Matsch gave no reasons for his decisions about the exhibits in his four-paragraph order. The items have been locked up in three storage rooms at the U.S. District Courthouse in Denver.

Prosecution and defense lawyers have until Sept. 27 to file objections to his decisions about the exhibits.

Matsch acted in part so the court clerk would not have to relocate all the exhibits during an upcoming move to a new courthouse.