Nichols Arraigned In OKC Murders
The judge overseeing bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' state trial on 162 first-degree murder counts entered a not guilty plea on Nichols' behalf during arraignment Tuesday.
Nichols, wearing a gray jacket and white dress shirt, said nothing and sat with his hands in his lap during the hearing, not looking at those in the makeshift courtroom in the basement of the Oklahoma County jail.
District Judge Steven Taylor was making his first appearance after being assigned the case by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Defense attorneys asked for a jury trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Nichols, already serving a life prison sentence on federal bombing convictions, was bound over for trial May 13 following a preliminary hearing where prosecutors linked him to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.
Nichols, 48, was previously convicted on federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers killed in the blast.
The state charges involve victims who were not part of that case, as well as two fetuses whose mothers died in the bombing.
CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen says that if the preliminary hearing was any indication, the state case against Nichols is going to mirror the federal one witness for witness.
"It would not surprise me at all if the defenses are similar, too," says Cohen, "with Nichols' current attorneys hammering home the point that Timothy McVeigh was the end-all, be-all to any bombing conspiracy."
Cohen says the defense will probably focus even more time on McVeigh's role in the bombing than the original Nichols defense team because "McVeigh is no longer around to dispute that strategy."
McVeigh, who masterminded the blast, was executed two years ago for federal murder convictions.
Since Nichols was brought to Oklahoma in January 2000, his attorneys have said publicity about the bombing and Nichols' federal conviction made it impossible for him to get a fair trial.
Defense attorney Brian Hermanson, who has asked judges "to shut this case down" and dismiss the charges, says the publicity had stripped Nichols of his constitutional right to a presumption of innocence on the state charges.
State prosecutors have said the issue was premature because Nichols had not been ordered to stand trial for his role in the bombing.
Prosecutors say the bombing was revenge against the government for the deadly siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.
They said Nichols and McVeigh prepared the 4,000-pound fuel oil-and-fertilizer bomb together and that Nichols participated in robberies and burglaries to raise money and obtain equipment for the plot.
Nichols was home in Herington, Kan., the day of the explosion, but prosecutors say he helped McVeigh pack the bomb inside a Ryder truck a day earlier and helped stash his friend's getaway car.