OK - OKC Bombing, Murrah Building, 19 April 1995

Casshew

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OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Terry Nichols, already serving a federal life sentence for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, is seeking a plea bargain on state murder charges that carry the death penalty, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Nichols, convicted on federal charges of manslaughter and conspiracy in the deaths of eight federal officers among the 168 people killed in the bombing, is scheduled to face trial in an Oklahoma court on March 1 for the murder of the other 160 victims.

He is likely to receive the death penalty if convicted in the trial which is expected to last up to six months and be the most expensive in Oklahoma's history. The cash-strapped state has had difficulty in paying for the case.

Attorneys for Nichols, 48, said in the motion that they have been offering the plea deal for months

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/02/18/nichols.hearing.reut/index.html
 
I am from a town just north of Oklahoma City and most of us around here would like to see him get the death penalty. I think a no contest plea is crap because this man is not owning up to what he did. A guilty plea is what I want to hear but I don't think that is going to happen. The trial is going to be very expensive and part of me wonders if spending the money is worth it. He could just rot away in prison, having to remember all those Oklahoma people he murdered, for the rest of his life. Another part of me wants this monster to die a very painful death for what he did.

I think a lot of us are just torn about what is best for our state and our people.

d :(
 
Tinker was hubby's first permanent base after basic training and school. He is in the air force. We were here originally from February of 1989 to late summer of 1995. All three of my girls were born here and are true Okies. :D

We came back to the base in August of 2001 and have been here since then. We will be here until he retires. We missed it terribly. Hubby has been in the air force since his join date of April 19, 1988. He passed the 15 year mark last April.
 
It seems odd to spend $3 million in an attempt to get the death penalty for Nichols when the federal penalty already calls for life without parole. Would there be a better way to spend this amount, rather than making attorneys rich?
 
I was watching the news last night and there was a report on about the trial. A lot of people have been asking why on Earth would the DA want to go forth with this trial when a federal one had already beeen done. He said that he had promised the people of Oklahoma that he would see justice done in the NAME of their loved ones who were killed in the bombing. He said that the federal trial was for the FBI agents who were killed in the bombing, NOT for the people of Oklahoma that were murdered. He intended to see Terry Nichols pay with his life for what he did to the innocent people of Oklahoma. After hearing his reasons, I agree with the trial being done here.

I only wish they would turn that SOB loose on the streets of downtown Oklahoma City and let the people deliver justice. I think he would be praying for that lethal injection before we were done with him. :mad:

d
 
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - A government scientist lied when he claimed that ammonium nitrate crystals found on Oklahoma City bombing debris had been embedded by the force of the blast, an FBI whistleblower testified Wednesday at bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' state murder trial.

Frederic Whitehurst, testifying for the defense, said an FBI forensic scientist he trained himself, Steven Burmeister, also lied when he testified that the crystals came from the kind of fertilizer believed to have been used in the bombing.

Whitehurst said there was not enough evidence to support either of Burmeister's conclusions.

"He is my student. And I trust him like a brother. But he lied under oath. He lied," Whitehurst said, appearing to grimace with emotion.

The bomb destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people.

Whitehurst said he questioned Burmeister's truthfulness after reviewing transcripts of his testimony at the 1997 federal trials of Nichols and bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was executed in 2001.

Burmeister's testimony was the same when he testified at Nichols' state trial last month. Prosecutors have said Burmeister's discovery is key to proving Nichols helped McVeigh gather components and build the bomb.

Whitehurst is an FBI whistleblower whose mid-1990s allegations of shoddy work inside the FBI lab led to widespread changes.

The Justice Department inspector general's office investigated the lab for 18 months and criticized the facility for flawed scientific work and inaccurate, pro-prosecution testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing.

The Associated Press last year reported that Burmeister himself alleged to the Justice Department's inspector general that the bombing evidence was tainted by shoddy work and contamination problems, then recanted the allegation a few months before he testified in the McVeigh trial.

Whitehurst's testimony focused on a shredded piece of plywood recovered two days after the bombing that authorities believe came from the cargo container of the Ryder truck that delivered the bomb. The debris, found in a parking lot across the street from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, is the only direct evidence of the explosive used.

Whitehurst said he saw the crystals through a microscope after Burmeister discovered them, but that it was impossible to say whether the crystals were embedded or sprinkled on the debris as a result of contamination.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2004/may/19/051904069.html
 
So what? It doesn't change anything as far as I'm concerned. Terry Nichols is guilty and I hope they fry him! :furious: :mad:
 
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20040611052309990003&_mpc=news.6
McALESTER, Okla. (June 12) - In a blow to prosecutors and victims' family members who said death was the appropriate punishment, a 12-member jury deadlocked on whether Terry Nichols should be executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. Jurors deliberated 19 1/2 hours over three days before they said Friday they had reached an impasse.

It was the second time Nichols escaped the death penalty for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people.

A federal jury deadlocked on his sentence six years ago after finding him guilty of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of eight federal agents. A judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

In the state case, Nichols was convicted for the 160 other victims, and one fetus whose mother died in the blast. Because the jury deadlocked in the sentencing phase, the duty now falls to Judge Steven Taylor.

Taylor, who must by law sentence Nichols to life in prison, set the sentencing for Aug. 9.

The judge asked jury foreman Peter Mills if more deliberations could lead to a decision. Mills said that would not help.

''Three days you have worked on this,'' Taylor told the jury. ''And sometimes this is how cases end. The law anticipates that juries may not reach unanimous conclusions.''

Mills, reached later by telephone at home, said he did not want to talk about the case.

Mary Reeder, whose husband Cecil Reeder was on the jury, said in a telephone interview he was in bed and couldn't come to the telephone. She said he told her the jury voted 7-5 for the death penalty. The jury's decision had to be unanimous.

State prosecutors brought the case, which has cost $3.9 million in defense attorneys' fees alone, after Nichols' federal trial.

''I think he should die, but that's not my decision,'' said Beverly Rankin, who was injured in the bombing. ''Hopefully, he'll never step foot out free in his lifetime.''

Bud Welch, who lost a daughter in the bombing but opposed the death penalty for Nichols, said in a telephone interview that the state trial was a waste of money.

''It's just a shame that we've paid millions of dollars and spent a tremendous amount of emotions and re-victimized family members to go through this process,'' Welch said.

Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane, who made the decision to pursue the state case against Nichols, denied that the prosecution was conducted solely for the purpose of getting a death penalty. He said it was important for Nichols to be convicted of killing all the bombing victims.

Lane also said the state counts would serve as an insurance policy if the federal counts are overturned.

''This case has always been about 161 men, women and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers,'' he said.

Later, Lane said he believes Nichols was spared the death penalty because of ''sympathy issues'' among some jurors, including his religious conversion since he was arrested three days after the bombing. Prosecutors had argued that Nichols' faith was not genuine but was a ''jailhouse conversion'' that began about the time the state filed murder charges against him in 1999.

Defense attorney Brian Hermanson said his thoughts were with members of bombing victims' families. He said Nichols prayed that ''all people can recover from the hate and fear'' created by the bombing.


More on This Story


· Nichols Decision Disappoints Families

Prosecutors said the blast was revenge for the deaths of about 80 people who died in the government siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.

Timothy McVeigh, Nichols' former Army buddy and the mastermind of the bombing, was convicted of federal charges and executed on June 11, 2001, three years to the day of the Nichols verdict.

They said Nichols helped build the two-ton bomb of farm fertilizer and fuel oil that was packed into a Ryder truck and detonated outside the federal building.

Nichols' trial in Oklahoma began in March and lasted more than three months. The jury began deliberating in the trial's sentencing phase Wednesday following days of emotional testimony from victims' relatives and members of Nichols' family.
 
mommyd said:
This just makes me sick! That SOB should die for what he did.

:furious: :mad:

I think if I were in his shoes, I would pray for the death penalty as opposed to spending the rest of my life, with no chance of parole, I think I would commit suicide if there was no hope of ever getting out! But that's just me!
 
The FBI has released long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the fertilizer bomb went off. They don't show the actual explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

More at link:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556143,00.html

There is a glitch with the video, hopefully it will be fixed shortly
Video:
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index....alObject=10093915&referralPlaylistId=playlist
 
From the article -

"The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn't want anybody to see."

not so strange, mysterygirl...it's the FBI. :rolleyes:
 
There seems to be quite connection between the 9/11 Committee Officials and the OKC Bombing Officials. The EXACT same group of officially sanctioned experts did the forensic investigations in both cases:
  • Dr W. Gene Corley
  • Charles Thornton
  • Paul Mlaker
  • Mete Sozen

And Controlled Demolition Inc. got the contract to remove (and dispose of without inspection) the rubble from both events. More on the similarities here: http://911research.wtc7.net/non911/oklahoma/index.html

Check this out and you will be amazed.
 
There seems to be quite connection between the 9/11 Committee Officials and the OKC Bombing Officials. The EXACT same group of officially sanctioned experts did the forensic investigations in both cases:
  • Dr W. Gene Corley
  • Charles Thornton
  • Paul Mlaker
  • Mete Sozen

And Controlled Demolition Inc. got the contract to remove (and dispose of without inspection) the rubble from both events. More on the similarities here: http://911research.wtc7.net/non911/oklahoma/index.html

Check this out and you will be amazed.

I did check it out and I was amazed. But not the way you think.:rolleyes:
 
Is there any way to download the footage? I have a friend who helped recovery efforts that might want to see it, and I like to archive things.
 

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