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Nichols jury faces Day 6 of deliberations
December 22, 1997
Web posted at: 11:36 p.m. EST (0436 GMT)DENVER (CNN) -- Jurors went home Monday afternoon without reaching a verdict in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Terry Nichols.
The seven women and five men on the panel have debated Nichols' fate for 33 1/2 hours -- 10 hours longer than it took a jury to convict Timothy McVeigh on the same charges. McVeigh, 29, was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
The Nichols jury will return to the Denver courthouse Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. for a sixth day of deliberations.
Unlike the McVeigh jury, the Nichols panel is not sequestered. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch reminded the jurors not to discuss the case with anyone outside the jury room.
Nichols' lawyer, Michael Tigar, smiled and patted Nichols' shoulder as Matsch announced the recess. Nichols appeared relaxed. His parents, sister and brother were in the courtroom as well.
Tigar declined to answer reporters' questions.
Like McVeigh, Nichols, 42, could be sentenced to death if convicted of murder and related charges in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The explosion, which killed 168 people, has been described as the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Prosecutors say Nichols and McVeigh acquired ingredients and built the ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb, which McVeigh then delivered to Oklahoma City while Nichols stayed at home with his family in Herington, Kansas. Defense attorneys deny Nichols' involvement.
Victims' advocates tensely waiting
Should Nichols be found guilty, the penalty phase of the trial would start next week at the earliest. Victims' family members and other possible penalty phase witnesses have been sent back to Oklahoma for the holidays, CNN has learned.
But Rudy Guzman, whose brother was killed in the bombing, stayed in Denver and kept busy passing out gifts to homeless people Monday.
"It's nerve-wracking ... really hard to wait," Guzman said.
So far, jurors have only asked the judge two questions. On Friday, they wanted to know why no criminal charges had been filed in the robbery of a quarry where the alleged bombers stole blasting caps, detonator cord and other explosives materials, a source told CNN.
The jury also has asked for a chronological list of the 192 witnesses who testified and for information it could review about Nichols' activities in the fall of 1994, the period in which the bomb plot purportedly was devised.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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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