You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Nichols Proposes Deal in Okla. Bomb Case
2004-02-18
Bombing conspirator Terry Nichols offered Tuesday to plead no contest to state murder charges if prosecutors drop their attempt to seek the death penalty, according to a motion filed in the case. State prosecutors indicated in a statement they have no plans to accept Nichols’ offer, similar to at least one other offer the defense has made. Nichols, charged with 161 counts of first-degree murder, filed the motion in McAlester, where he’s scheduled to go on trial March 1 for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Nichols’ motion was apparently filed in response to a recent editorial in The Oklahoman which inferred that the trial, expected to last 3-6 months and cost millions of dollars, was being conducted because of Nichols’ refusal to enter a plea. "We need to make perfectly clear on the record that Mr. Nichols is willing - and has been willing - to enter a no contest plea to all counts" if the state would not seek the death penalty, the motion states. Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane indicated prosecutors will not accept Nichols’ offer. A no contest plea, he said, "allows a defendant to be sentenced by a judge without admitting that he bears any responsibility for the acts of which he is accused. I think that speaks for itself," Lane’s statement said.

In September 2001, Nichols’ lead attorney, Brian Hermanson, offered in an open letter to Lane to end the appeals of his federal bombing conviction and accept a federal life sentence in order to avoid a state trial. Nichols, 48, was convicted of federal charges for the deaths of eight law enforcement officers in the April 19, 1995, bombing, which killed 168 people. he was sentenced to life in prison. The state charges are for the deaths of the other 160 victims and one victim’s unborn child.
This mutt should die. However, if he were to tell us everything about the supposed connection of the OK bombing to some Middle Eastern terrorist group, and IF everything he said checked out, and IF that info allowed us to roll up a dangerous network, then I might allow him to spend the rest of his life in solitary.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  I'm with Secret Master. Give him life and let/make him talk. In the end he'll get shanked by someone.
Posted by: Sgt.DT   2004-2-18 5:39:03 PM  

#9  It's not a matter of "ifs" shipman. It's a matter of "whens" and "whos."
Posted by: Secret Master   2004-2-18 5:05:29 PM  

#8  I'm with Jon.
Kill im.. let him tell his secrets to the priest.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-2-18 4:37:07 PM  

#7  Let's not be hasty, Jon: remember people this clown KNOWS THINGS. Things that I for one want made very public, even if a certain former inhabitant of the White House doesn't. If you look carefully into the events surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing you will see that there are real and substantial links between MvVeigh, Nichols, and Iraqi Army Intelligence. A growing body of evidence suggests that those two idiots were hired by our glorious friends in the Arab world to perform that barbaric act of terror. Inquiring RRR's want to know.

So go ahead and give him his immunity. Some DOC will take care of putting an end to the lamentable Mister Nichols in any case.
Posted by: Secret Master   2004-2-18 3:02:51 PM  

#6  i say kill im
Posted by: Jon Shep U.K   2004-2-18 1:58:44 PM  

#5  The goal is to increase his sentence

It's simple, the feds gave him life in prison. The people of Oklahoma want his head on a stake, that's why the state prosecutor won't cut a deal.
Posted by: Steve   2004-2-18 12:43:28 PM  

#4  
Why has it taken so long for Nichols to go to trial

I'm not sure I understand your question. Nichols was tried and convicted in a federal trial for murdering the federal officials in the building. He got a rather moderate verdict and sentence.

Now Oklahoma wants to try him for murdering all the other people who weren't federal officials. The goal is to increase his sentence.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester   2004-2-18 12:38:54 PM  

#3  Why has it taken so long for Nichols to go to trial if he is not cooperating with other pieces of the OKC investigation?

Can anybody offer up an explanation?
Posted by: Daniel King   2004-2-18 11:10:31 AM  

#2  Nichol's travels in the Phillipines were worth a look. However, if he had anything to disclose, he would have done so.
Posted by: Anonymous   2004-2-18 2:18:07 AM  

#1  I hear ya, Steve.
We need to know all about his meeting(s) with Ramzi Yousef in the Phillipines.
We executed McVeigh too soon and President Bush carried through the sentence even though it meant leting Clinton's FBI get away with "losing" too much of the evidence, but everything about OKC says jihadi Islamists: truck bomb, children killed, big symbolic American "guv'mint" building, looked just like the African embassy bombings, etc.
The truth needs to come out after over 10 years. McNichols is already toast one way or another though so he might as well make it all mean something by telling what he knows.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro   2004-2-18 2:10:33 AM  

00:00