Trial of Tears

DENVER: Closing with Timothy McVeigh's tearful mother and a five-minute video of a young Tim at Christmastime, the defense may have finally gotten through to jurors today in a trial dominated emotionally by the prosecution. "This was the big moment in the trial," reports TIME's Pat Cole from Denver. "McVeigh's parents made an appeal to a group of strangers to save their son's life," he said. "It made one juror cry, that in spite of what he was involved in, he was still a person who had a family, who had a childhood. But it still may not be enough." The defense needs only one vote to save McVeigh from the death penalty. If they got it Wednesday, the most important tear of the trial will have been shed by the defendant himself. As his mother spoke, the normally stony McVeigh was seen to wipe a tear from beneath his eye. Jannie Coverdale, who lost her two grandsons in the blast, said that the tear had changed things for her. "For over a year, I have looked for some sign of emotion and it came today," she told CNN afterwards. "At least now I know he's human."