Timothy McVeigh’s lead attorney Stephen Jones will speak about his role in the McVeigh case today and Thursday at several public events at The University of Memphis.
Jones will deliver his program, “Defending the Most Hated Man in America,” today at 3:30 p.m. in Room 250 of the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
“Jones will talk about his experience as a criminal defense lawyer in a very high-profile case to law students who are about to go out there and practice law themselves,” said Steven Mulroy, faculty adviser for the Criminal Law Society, the student society sponsoring the speaking event.
Timothy McVeigh was convicted for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He was executed on June 11. Although Jones left the McVeigh case during appeals at McVeigh’s request, he maintains McVeigh was actually a fall guy, a bit player in a much larger conspiracy. Jones wrote a book, Others Unknown, detailing his theory, which implicates many more individuals and foreign countries in the bombing.
Jones will show a short film, deliver a talk, then open the floor for questions. The program will focus on the challenges of defending McVeigh, who was quickly considered the sole villian in the Oklahoma City bombing.
“If you were asked to defend someone like that — bin Laden or someone — imagine how difficult that would be — threats and everything else,” said Jim Willis, who holds the chair of excellence in the department of Journalism and organized the three-day “Covering the Terrorism Story: Probing the Threats and the Mindsets” forum at which Jones will make additional appearances.
Tonight, Jones will speak at a dinner at Bosco’s in Overton Square at 7 p.m.
Jones will also speak at the “International Terrorist Threats” session at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Room 315 of the Fogelman Executive Center. Although many people consider the Oklahoma City bombing as domestic terrorism, Jones includes international entities in his McVeigh conspiracy theory, according to Willis.
The events are free and open to the public.
