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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Nichols jury adjourns without a verdict
Latest developments:
December 17, 1997
- Jurors seek list of witnesses
- Survivors wrap Christmas presents
- Tigar calls Nichols 'my brother'
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Web posted at: 10:27 p.m. EST (0327 GMT)DENVER (CNN) -- Jurors deliberated a second day without reaching a verdict Wednesday in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Terry Nichols.
The seven-woman, five-man panel completed its first full day of deliberations, adjourning after eight hours and being sent home by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch.
A L S O :
Oklahoma City bombing trial - Transcripts
Newsmaker Profiles: Terry Nichols
Deliberations will resume Thursday at 8:30 a.m.
Early in the day the jury asked Matsch for a list of the nearly 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."
CNN learned that the jury wants to review testimony about Nichols' activities in the fall of 1994, when Nichols quit his job as a farmhand. The prosecution says Nichols bought ammonium nitrate used in the bomb that same day.
One of the jurors also submitted a question, which the judge answered in writing and refused to disclose.
Defense and prosecution lawyers also had a conference over a sealed motion filed by the prosecution. The content of the motion and the results of the meeting were not disclosed.
Survivors wrap Christmas presents
Two blocks away, about three dozen bombing survivors and relatives gathered in the basement of a church to wrap thousands of donated toys for homeless children
With poinsettias decorating the room and Christmas carols playing from speakers, the group stood at large, round tables, taping brightly colored paper around dolls, trucks, blocks, stuffed animals, coats, mittens and muffs.
"We're trying to focus on somebody else's needs instead of just wallowing in our stuff right now," said Marsha Kight, whose daughter, Frankie Merrill, died in the bombing.
Nichols spent the day inside the courthouse and visited with his mother, Joyce Nichols Wilt, and his sister, Suzanne McDonnell.
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 Nichols' fate has more options. It can consider second-degree murder or manslaughter charges, neither of which carry the death penalty.
McVeigh's jurors didn't have those options.
Tigar calls Nichols 'my brother'
The Nichols jury deliberated for about three hours Tuesday after hearing emotional final arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
The prosecution contends that 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.
Tigar leaving court Wednesday
Prosecutors concede that Nichols wasn't there when the bomb went off, but say he helped 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.
Defense attorney Michael Tigar portrayed Nichols as a family man who didn't know about the bombing in advance, and ended his speech by placing his hands on Nichols' shoulders and saying, "This is my brother. He is in your hands."
Prosecutors evoked the images of those who died in the blast, reminding the jurors that the victims also had families.
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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