From a very large page of documentation and reasoning at Devvy Kidd's site, URL below, this is an email letter from Harmon Taylor, editor of "Legal Reality", dated April 25, prefatory to the filing of an APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT INJUNCTIVE RELIEF dated May 10 to stay the execution of Timothy McVeigh:
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Original Message -----
From: LegalReality
To: jboppjr@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 8:51 AM
Subject: Serious case, short time
Good Morning:
I'm Harmon L. Taylor, and I'm licensed in Texas (SBN 19693800), since May, 1989. Your name came up as someone in Terre Haute who might be able to get me in touch with at least one lawyer there who would be able to serve as local counsel.
Let me apologize up front for what may be a close shave on the practical time line. I've been following the McVeigh case since fairly early on, and there are a couple of major problems stemming from lack of judicial authority to try the case at all, and I'd like to get those heard in the court there in the county in which the correctional facility is located.
McVeigh, as a person, is about the last concern on my list. What gets my attention here is the cost it has taken to obtain and preserve our notions of "limited government." If it helps at all, my grandfather (Mom's Dad), served in the Navy in WWI; I went to Texas A&M; I've got family and friends on active duty and on reserve duty, and it can't stand it when they get, let's just call it "the epitome of disrespect," when what they're ready to protect is just willy-nilly given away in the courtroom.
In March, I wrote the President a letter. The full text is on the website (http://www.legalreality.com). (I understand you've done quite a little pro life-litigation, so you also may be at least interested in my discussion on Roe v. Wade, when you get a minute.) I didn't expect a lot to happen, and, I haven't been disappointed by setting my expectations too high.
What I had depended upon, perhaps too optimistically, was a contact into your area in order to get some planning done considerably earlier than "now." There having been none until yesterday, I can just allow this to play out and see what the Divine Intervention result will be. And, your name came up from the pro-life matters, so I doubt you'd even know from whom came the reference.
At any rate, in the Open Letter to the President, I outline two reasons to stay the execution. Actually, both points would change the current result drastically, but the primary objective is to prevent the execution. I don't know; we may have different views on the death penalty, but even where I would otherwise find it the appropriate sentence, I'd like first for the court to have at least the authority to try the case.
Point 1: No court (State or US) in Colorado has subject matter jurisdiction to try a criminal case that arose outside Colorado, in this case, Oklahoma.
Article III, section 2, Article 4, section 2, and the Sixth Amendment are abundantly clear that even Treason, the one crime defined in the Constitution, itself, cannot be tried outside the State in which it arose. So, there's no legislatively defined/punished behavior (State or US) that can ever be "transferred" across the State line. In other words, even if the language used for purposes of the indictment were "Law of the United States," it's still legally impossible for a crime in Oklahoma to be tried in Colorado. Not even Treason committed in Oklahoma could be tried in Colorado.
Point 2: (In sum) The indictment is insufficient on its face, as regards the charges of murder.
Congress has zero authority to address the topic of murder (and, in this area, we might be able to get a better handle on what the feds are trying to do as regards abortion). Since Congress can't address murder in such a way as to create "Law of the United States," what we're left with is either a military matter or a matter involving United States property.
Two key problems here. (1) The McVeigh case is neither a military matter nor a matter involving United States property, and (2) even if this involved United States property, such legislation is not a basis for activating Article III, section 2, subject matter jurisdiction.
As regards the first key problem. The non-military angle may speak for itself, so I'll address the summary as to how we know this wasn't a matter involving United States property. For property to be United States property, there must be, among the other requirements, two documents: (1) A deed (some form of receipt) and (2) an Act by the State Legislature granting "Consent" to the sale of that property to the United States Government. Art. I, section 8 (in the "exclusive legislative Authority" clause).
The local media, there in OK City, ran a few stories really early on into this matter that established that no such documents exists. That story didn't get national attention, and I only learned about it after proposing this angle to some folks there in OK City. At any rate, after contacting the State Legislature myself, and getting no response, and being satisfied that it's impossible for such documents to be in the original trial record, since the documents don't exist, I'm 100% certain that we're not talking about US Government Property: (1) There is no deed (receipt), and (2) the Oklahoma Legislature never consented to any transfer into the hands of the United States Government.
Therefore, this is not even a matter that involves US Government property, which leaves both the US Grand Jury and the US Attorney General's Office in the reality of having no authority in/over the case.
As regards the second key problem (regarding the basis for the murder charges). Let's say that the AG's Office comes up with some fraudulently filed and authenticated documents that would then satisfy the requirements that this property was US Government property. It's still the case than any language that would apply to the District (and all US Government property) would HAVE to be handled by the STATE authorities. Since Article III, section 2, does not extend the judicial Power to matters that "arise under" the Law of the District (which is made by Congress pursuant to the "exclusive legislative Authority" clause in Article I, section 8), it follows that there just simply is no basis for trying such crimes in any US District Court in the country, much less even presenting them to a US Grand Jury, or having them handled by the US AG's Office.
But, to focus on the essential point, there's zero authority in any US District Court, not even one in Oklahoma, to try a criminal charge based on language that is only applicable to/in the District (and to US Government property). Those matters MUST be sued out in the State judicial process.
That's the legal basis for asking for a stay of execution. Not to get into the "this is splitting hairs" angle, I'm also 100% convinced that the truck bomb, the only explosion to which McVeigh has been associated, was anything like sufficient to bring down that building. As indicated in the letter to the President, the facts we know to be true, which have yet to make the national media, include the fact that each one of the vertical supports in that building had a demolition charge strapped to it (which the FBI, ATF, etc., knew about, which is why they weren't there that day). The tireless work that (former) Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key and his team have done puts this, and many unreported facts rather much beyond dispute.
In short, on the issue of causation, we have this. This is not an explosion case, as has been marketed by the media. It's a building collapse case. Those very unfortunate deaths were not caused by the explosion, but by the building collapse. So, the question is this: which explosion(s) that morning caused the building to collapse? Given that it was physically impossible for the truck bomb to do much more than break some windows, it follows that there's an intervening cause, and superseding cause, which other cause is the actual cause of the building collapse. Thus, it's impossible for McVeigh's actions to have resulted in the building collapse, meaning it's legally impossible for McVeigh to have committed murder, at all.
That's the matter in a nutshell. Please feel free to forward this to any who might be able to serve as local counsel.
Thanks, very much, for having a minute, and for your time in this matter.
Harmon L. Taylor
Editor
Legal Reality
(214) 361-0401
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Much more info at URL below.
