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FIRST HE SAID HE DIDN'T KNOW anything about it. Then he said it was a hoax. And then Stephen Jones, the combative Enid, Okla., lawyer who in just three weeks will try to save Tim McVeigh from the death penalty, angrily conceded that a sensational McVeigh confession, reported in The Dallas Morning News, was indeed based on confidential defense-team documents. Quoting from those documents, the paper said McVeigh admitted he'd helped build the bomb, had driven the rented Ryder truck to the Murrah Federal Building and--worst of all--had told interviewers that he wanted a big ""body count'' to send a message to the Feds. That was devastating stuff, but Jones gamely insisted that the ""confession'' was only a ruse cooked up by members of the defense team who were trying to con potential witnesses into telling what they knew about the bombing plot. But late last week, Jones was worried enough to suggest that, in the interests of a fair trial for McVeigh, he might now seek a continuance.
His hesitation was a clear sign that the defense team had shot itself in the foot--just weeks before what will be one of the most closely watched trials in American history. Jones's credibility badly dented, and so was his reputation for hard-was nosed competence. In an editorial, the Rocky Mountain News urged U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to ask McVeigh if he wanted a new lawyer. ""If a man's attorney has carelessly compromised his defense--and remember, this a death-penalty case--then the defendant certainly is entitled to new counsel,'' said Prof. Daniel Polsby of Northwestern University Law School. If the document is what Jones says it is--a fabrication--then it offers an unusual insight into the conduct of McVeigh's defense. Given the weight of the government's exhaustively investigated case against McVeigh, the thrust of Jones's strategy so far seems to be an attempt to show that McVeigh was only a stooge for others in the underground ultraright. To make that extremely difficult case, Jones hired some right-wing conspiracy buffs to investigate the militia movement. Somewhere along the line, the ""confession'' documents leaked.
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Though McVeigh's purported confession cannot be introduced in court because it is protected by lawyer-client privilege, some worried about the story's impact on the jury pool. (Judge Matsch had already sent a letter warning some 1,000 prospective jurors to avoid all news reports about the case.) Other lawyers wondered about the ethics of fabricating a confession, and some, like J. W. Coyle of Oklahoma City, shook their heads at Jones's inept handling of the Dallas paper's bombshell. ""I think it was one of those times--which are difficult for Stephen--when "no comment' would have been an appropriate response,'' said Coyle.
The irony was that Jones, until now, has been widely known for his skill at manipulating the media. ""Our hats are off to him for his abilities as a spinmeister,'' a federal source told NEWSWEEK, relishing Jones's discomfort. A staunch Republican who was once a member of Richard Nixon's staff, Jones spent the past 30 years building a successful criminal and civil practice in his hometown of Enid. He is a ferocious courtroom competitor whose trademark, according to opposing lawyers, is to bombard the other side with endless motions addressing every possible procedural wrinkle. ""You better not give Stephen Jones an edge, or he'll take it,'' says Oklahoma City lawyer Merle Gile. ""He's a formidable opponent, even when he's up against the federal government.''
For the OKBomb case, Jones has assembled a staff of 14 lawyers, with seven more to manage his computer database, and he has already spent some $10 million of the taxpayers' money on McVeigh's defense. It won't be easy: the Feds' case is built on a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including the receipt for ammonium nitrate, a key bomb ingredient, that has McVeigh's fingerprints on it. So Jones is understandably rattled as the trial draws nigh, and the mystery of the alleged confession has only made things worse. He faces an uphill struggle in court--with McVeigh's life as the prize.
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