DENVER, Aug. 14 -- U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has formally sentenced Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to death for the truck bomb attack on the Murrah building that killed 168 people. Before the judge made official what a jury found June 13, McVeigh walked past his lead attorney, Stephen Jones and faced the bench to quote a former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. McVeigh said: 'You honor, I want to let the words of justice Brandeis speak for me. 'Our government is the hope, the omnipotent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.'' After McVeigh spoke, Matsch imposed the death sentence returned by jurors June 13, saying, 'It is the judgment of the court that Timothy McVeigh be sentenced to death on all 11 counts.' McVeigh, flanked by three federal marshals and dressed in a sports shirt and khaki slacks, then heard Matsch tell him he would be put to death by injection. The Gulf War veteran is the 13th man on federal death row. Matsch then asked McVeigh, 'Do you have any questions?' McVeigh responded, 'Not with this court, your honor.' Jones has 10 days from McVeigh's formal sentencing to file an appeal with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. He told reporters after the sentencing that he had filed a notice of appeal. Jones said it was a 'solemn day of judgment.' In an interview this week with a Buffalo, N.Y., newspaper, McVeigh said he wants Jones removed from the case, accusing the Enid, Okla., attorney of lying to him.
Diane Leonard, whose husband died in the bombing, told CNN: 'I am very, very pleased that our judicial process has functioned as it should have. I'm very proud of the dignified manner in which this trial was conducted.' Asked whether she saw any remorse in McVeigh, she said, 'I did not see that and did not expect to see any.' The 29-year-old McVeigh was convicted June 2 of eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of federal officers in the building when he blew it up, and three bombing charges. His alleged accomplice and former Army buddy Terry Nichols is charged identically, and is slated to go to trial Sept. 29. Nichols has asked for a change of venue, suggesting San Francisco as an alternative to Denver. ---
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