WTC Records Folder 0128 Disaster Information General label, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Responding to Terrorism Victims - Oklahoma City and Beyond Page 3 of 4

present has an opportunity to share their similar experiences. The ability to talk about traumatic experiences with colleagues appears to be very helpful to rescue and other public safety personnel who are traditionally reluctant to acknowledge the profound effects of what they have seen and done.12 Sometimes this reluctance to acknowledge and address symptoms of stress is reinforced by agency policies that penalize employees who seek psychological help, labeling them `unfit for duty." Twenty-eight workshops have been held since the VOCA grant in 1998 began with a total of 255 participants: 168 rescue workers, 27 survivors, 28 fimly members, 26 volunteers, and 6 others (King, January—March 2000).

Many of the rescue personnel, for whom the workshops were primarily designed, reported overwhelming relief at the opportunity to unburden themselves and to voice the guilt they felt for "not doing enough" to save those who died in the bombing. Often the response of rescuers is to keep silent, believing their families should be protected from the horrible images imprinted in their memories. It was reported that after sharing at the workshop, many returned home with new hope for healing and recovery? A surprising benefit from the workshops, which was reported by participants from different agencies, was that, as they expressed similar fears and hardships, they discovered a kinship and a bond not shared before. OVC funding is making it possible to offer free workshops in Oklahoma, Maryland, and California, allowing all the rescue team members who came from distant states to attend.

Restitution

Restitution for victims presented complications for both victims and the prosecution team, given the number of victims, the lack of defendant assets, and disparate criminal sentences. No monetary restitution was sought in either the McVeigh case in which Timothy McVeigh received a death sentence or the Nichols case. Defendant Terry Nichols had some assets in property, but the total value was too small to permit valuable distribution among eligible victims. Nichols' sentence of life imprisonment, however, presented the possibility of financial earnings in the future through publication of a book. In addition to 18 U.S.C. § 3681, which does not allow criminals to profit from their crimes, prosecutors proposed a restitution plan calling for the donation of any funds earned by Nichols to the U.S. Department of Justice's Crime Victims Fund. The sum, $14 million, allocated for Nichols' restitution obligation represented the cost of rebuilding the Murrah Building.-' To determine an equitable solution to the question of restitution in this particular case, prosecutors polled the victims for answers. The victims agreed to waive their statutory rights to individual restitution payments, acknowledging no amount of money could conceivably restore them.22

Postconviction Notification of Victims

The end of a trial and sentencing are not the end of the criminal justice process. Federal law requires federal officials to notify victims of a defendant's posttrial status including parole hearings, any type of release of the defendant (including escape), and the death of the defendant while in custody. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operates a notification program to meet this responsibility. The

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/respterrorism/chap5.htm1 9/29/01

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