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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Nichols jurors seek list of witnesses
Defense attorney Michael Tigar arrives with his wife on Wednesday Lawyers, judge meet as deliberations resume
December 17, 1997
Web posted at: 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT)In this story
DENVER (CNN) -- Defense and prosecution lawyers in the second Oklahoma City bombing trial met privately with the judge Wednesday as jurors resumed deliberations on the fate of defendant Terry Nichols.
The seven-woman, five-man panel sent a note to U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch asking for a list of the 200 witnesses who testified about the April 19, 1995, blast that killed 168 people. Defense attorneys insisted that they be listed in chronological order, and Matsch responded, "We'll try to get that done."
Jurors also had another question, which the judge answered in writing and refused to disclose.
Jurors have more leeway
The jury arrives at the courthouse Wednesday Nichols faces 11 charges -- conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing of federal property and the murders of eight federal law enforcement officers in the line of duty. Each count can be punishable by a death sentence.
Unlike jurors who convicted Timothy McVeigh of murder and conspiracy and then sentenced him to death for the bombing, the panel deciding whether Nichols is guilty of the same charges has more options.
They can consider second-degree murder or manslaughter charges, neither of which carry the death penalty. McVeigh's jurors, who reached their verdict after more than 23 hours of deliberations over four days, didn't have those options.
The Nichols jury held its first closed-door session on Tuesday, meeting for more than two hours after hearing emotional final arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys. They were not sequestered and went home for the night.
Jurors reassembled at the federal courthouse in Denver at 8:30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. EST) on Wednesday to hold their first full day of deliberations.
About the same time, lawyers from both sides met in Matsch's chambers. The meeting, lasting less than an hour, dealt with undisclosed administrative matters.
At this point in the McVeigh case, the lawyers and Matsch held a similar meeting to discuss a timetable for a penalty phase in the trial, if a guilty verdict were reached.
After the meeting Wednesday, lawyers and the judge returned to the courtroom to hear the jury's requests.
Nichols: Ally or in the dark?
Prosecutors Larry Mackey (foreground) and Beth Wilkinson arrive Wednesday Prosecutors contend Nichols, 42, and McVeigh, 29, worked together for months to plot the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in retaliation for the deadly FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.
Prosecutors conceded that Nichols wasn't there when the bomb went off, but accused him of helping McVeigh assemble the bomb, pack it inside a rental truck the day before the blast and deliver a getaway car to Oklahoma City three days before the explosion.
Defense attorneys argued that the two men, who met in the Army, were merely business associates who sold army surplus items at gun shows in the Midwest, and that Nichols knew nothing of the bombing plot.
T H E N I C H O L S T R I A L / T H E M c V E I G H T R I A L
T H E B O M B I N G / C N N S T O R I E S / L I N K S
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