On Wednesday, May 16, 2001 at approximately 8:00am New York time, authorities in Terre Haute, Indiana will commit the first federal execution in 38 years when three chemicals – Sodium pentothal which induces sleep, pancuronium bromide which stops breathing, and potassium chloride which stops the heart – are injected into the arm of Timothy McVeigh, the man solely responsible for the most horrific act of terrorism to ever take place on American soil – the Oklahoma City Bombing.

McVeigh admitted – with absolutely no remorse or regret – that he drove a rented truck carrying 7,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer and racing fuel and parked it in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on April 19, 1995. He then exited the vehicle, made sure he was at a safe distance – and then watched the truck explode – killing 168 innocent people – nineteen of which were children.

As soon as the news got out about what happened – this great nation of ours was shaken to it’s core. We see acts of terrorism every day in places like the Middle East, the Gaza Strip and Iraq – but never in our own backyard. The terror in Oklahoma on April 19, 1995 took away the long standing myth that, “it can’t happen here” – and seconds after the bombing – the entire United States stood still and turned it’s eyes to Oklahoma as the news reels, photos and reports came in of the disaster, the damage – and the victims.

Each minute that passed brought another terrifying and tear jerking image on America’s TV screens. The most memorable – a firefighter holding the charred remains of an infant that was playing in the building’s day care center one minute – and in the center of an explosion the next. I remember watching the live feed on television and feeling helpless as I saw so many horrible images flash on the screen. I saw people who worked in the building and were lucky enough to make it out alive standing around covered in blood and crying. I saw families rushing to the scene praying that their relatives were still alive – and I even saw the firefighters and police on the scene crying – they were not alone – because the entire nation was crying with them – except Timothy McVeigh.

Besides the obvious reasons that this crime one of the most heinous acts of violence ever committed in this country – it’s far much more heinous because Timothy McVeigh was able to wake up on April 19, 1995, take the time to load a truck with carefully measured explosives, park the truck in a pre-determined position that would cause the most damage, and walk away from the vehicle knowing that in a matter of minutes – the building he targeted, and a large majority of the people inside of it – people he didn’t even know – were going to be blown up. McVeigh was well aware that when that bomb went off – the lives of countless innocent people would be lost. McVeigh was perfectly content with the fact that the families of the people inside that building – who at that moment were probably thinking about their loved ones the way we do during the course of a day – have no idea that there is a truck full of deadly explosives outside of their building that is about to kill them. The only person that knew was Timothy McVeigh – and he didn’t warn anyone.

You tell me that this man does not deserve to die.

I am a staunch advocate for Capital Punishment for a number of reasons. For one, if someone decides to take another human being’s life – then they should lose their own. Second, I refuse to have my tax dollars spent on a murderer’s cable television, internet access – and education. I have never committed a crime in my life – and I have to pay for my own cable and internet access – but a murderer doesn’t? Third – and most important – the victims of a murderer’s rage had their lives taken away from them when they did not want to die. So why shouldn’t the murderer suffer the same fate?

The best story I ever heard was the story of a father in the Midwest who’s 10-year-old son was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a man who lived in the neighborhood. The distraught father, upon learning that his son’s assailant was arrested, went to the courthouse to attend the arraignment of the perpetrator. As the police escorted the suspect into the courtroom – the father, who was pretending to be someone using a telephone – pulled out a gun and shot the man that murdered his son in the head in plain view of the news cameras that were following the suspect into the courtroom. After he fired the one fatal shot – the father dropped the gun and put his hands over his head and waited to be handcuffed. At his trial, the father’s defense attorney based the father’s defense on the fact that any parent in his position would have done the same thing – despite the fact that this father committed a murder in front of police, cameras and the public – the jury unanimously found him not guilty.

Timothy McVeigh, however, was found guilty and will be executed in twenty-nine days in front of the families who’s lives he destroyed because of his own twisted political views. Although I await his execution with eager anticipation because I feel that no one that is alive today deserves to die more then he does – I am upset with the method they have chosen.

Of the various forms of execution, lethal injection is the most humane. When McVeigh is strapped to the gurney, he will simply feel the pinch of a needle and then go to sleep – granted, he’ll never wake up – but the only pain he’ll feel is the pinch of the needle. I don’t think McVeigh should be given such an easy way out. After all – did he inject the 168 people he killed with a chemical that induces sleep – or did he blow them up? In my opinion – McVeigh should suffer the same fate that his victims did.

So history will be made in twenty-nine days when McVeigh becomes the first Federal prisoner executed since 1963. I applaud the Federal Government for putting Timothy McVeigh to death – I just disagree with the form of execution they have chosen.

My choice? Put him in a room with the 168 families who’s lives he ruined – now that is Capital punishment.