GMA: Victim's Dad Will Watch McVeigh Execution
April 20 -- For days after the Oklahoma City bombing, Paul Howell stood outside the damaged structure and quietly prayed, hoping in vain that his youngest daughter would somehow make it out the wreckage alive.
So he felt fortunate to be one of the 10 survivors and victims' family members selected by lottery to stand witness to the May 16 execution of Timothy McVeigh in Terre Haute, Ind. Just to make sure it happens, he says.
"I consider it lucky," Howell told Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson. "I've done a lot of thinking about this thing and I just feel like I needed to be there to represent the state and also my family on this field. Because, the man, you know, he killed 168 people."
He knew 50 of those people personally. One was his daughter, Karen Howell, a 27-year-old mother of two who was getting ready to celebrate her third wedding anniversary. She was a loan officer at the Federal Employees Credit Union and was on the third floor of the bombed-out building.
"A lot of my friends got hurt and [McVeigh] has really disrupted a lot of people's lives and I need to see this to make sure it happens the way its supposed to," said Howell, a retired National Guard recruiter.
‘For the Whole Doggone State’
But it's not just about his family's loss, Howell said.
"I think more or less, its for the whole doggone state, because I'm definitely representing my family and my grandkids — but I talked to a lot of the people there today at the memorial and they said 'Paul, you need do this for all of us — to represent the ones that were not lucky enough to go to Terre Haute,'" he said.
He is not sure what he will see. Mostly he is curious to hear what McVeigh might have to say for himself.
"I'm hoping he will go in there and say he was sorry or something like that, but I just don't think he will — I think he's gonna make us mad again, is what I think — but that's alright, this will be the last time he'll be able to make anyone mad again," Howell said.
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