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Nichols to appeal conviction to Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terry Nichols, serving a life prison term in the Oklahoma City bombing, plans to appeal his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court because of documents the FBI said it had failed to hand over to defense attorneys.

Nichols was convicted on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in a trial that followed Timothy McVeigh's conviction in the 1995 bombing, in which 168 people died.

Michael Tigar, Nichols' attorney, told CNN that Nichols has until midnight Friday to ask the court to order the solicitor general to look into the impact of the newly disclosed files from the investigation on his case.

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"We will meet that deadline," Tigar said. "Terry Nichols was acquitted of most of the charges against him. He's got a real defense here."

Tigar said the discovery was "more significant for Terry than it is for Tim" because the documents could shed light on whether there was another man involved, the mysterious "John Doe No. 2," placed by one witness with McVeigh when he rented the truck used in the bombing.

This possible accomplice was never found or identified, although McVeigh's trial attorneys based his defense on the possibility of a broader conspiracy behind the bombing.

Tigar said he believed the FBI had deliberately withheld some 3,000 documents, not inadvertently as Justice Department officials said.

Nichols, who met McVeigh while both men were in the Army, was sentenced to life without parole on charges that he conspired with McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Nineteen children were among the 168 people who died in the worst case of terrorism on U.S. soil.

Nichols was also given a 48-year sentence for his convictions on eight counts of involuntary manslaughter -- eight federal employees killed in the blast -- to be served concurrently. He was ordered to pay the government $14 million for the damage caused to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

He was acquitted of murder and weapons-related charges.

Nichols and McVeigh were tried separately in Denver, Colorado, before U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, who sentenced McVeigh after the jury was unable to agree on a sentence.

Nichols was turned down in an earlier bid for a new trial and his appeal was rejected both by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Oklahoma State Government
Death Penalty Information Center
US Federal Bureau of Prisons

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