McVeigh sentencing: Judge wants to avoid 'lynching'

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DENVER (CNN) -- Saying he wants to avoid "a lynching," the judge in the Timothy McVeigh trial said Tuesday he will bar emotional penalty phase testimony that might "inflame or incite the passions of the jury."

"Care must be taken here to ensure that the next phase of the trial be one within proper constraints," U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch said during a hearing to discuss evidence and testimony to be presented during the trial's penalty phase, which begins Wednesday.

Jurors had the day off, but McVeigh was in the courtroom, where a day earlier he was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the April 19, 1995, bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

The federal Victims Rights Act allows crime victims to attend trials and testify about the impact the crime had on their lives.

At Tuesday's hearing, Matsch said he believes the law is constitutional but also allows him to restrict any witness he determines was influenced by hearing testimony during the guilt phase of the trial.

He said he will allow the defense to question those witnesses extensively.

But Matsch said he would prohibit any testimony that would incite a strong emotional reaction from the jury.

"The penalty phase hearing here cannot be turned into some type of a lynching," he said.

The jurors who convicted McVeigh will have to decide whether the life he led before he detonated a truck bomb -- killing 168 people -- is a reason to spare his life now.

In making that decision, jurors may get to hear from the 29-year-old McVeigh himself, who has never taken the stand.

Sources told CNN that no decision has been made whether McVeigh will testify. At the moment, they said, it appears likely he won't testify. That decision may change, they said.

The defense is expected to call McVeigh's father, William; his sister Jennifer, who testified for the prosecution at the trial; James Nichols, brother of McVeigh's alleged co-conspirator, Terry Nichols; and Dave Dilly, an ex-Army roommate of McVeigh who did not testify in the first phase of the trial.

Sources say it's highly unlikely that Michael Fortier, McVeigh's ex-Army buddy who became the government's star witness as part of a plea bargain agreement, will be called to give testimony during the trial's penalty phase.

• Newsmaker Profiles: Timothy McVeigh
• Video Almanac: 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing
• Message Boards: McVeigh Trial

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