January 30, 1996
Web posted at: 12:30 a.m. EST
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Surveys conducted for the prosecution show that Oklahoma City bombing suspects Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols could get a fair trial in the state, a consultant testified Tuesday. The defense wants the trial moved out of Oklahoma. Federal Judge Richard Matsch opened four days of hearings Tuesday to decide the trial site. No immediate ruling was expected.
The consultant, Dr. Donald Vinson, said polling he did in two Oklahoma cities and in three cities outside the state showed more than half of the people said they had no bias and could be fair toward the suspects.
McVeigh and Nichols could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of murder, terrorism, and conspiracy in the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 169 people in downtown Oklahoma City. The trial is now scheduled for Lawton, Oklahoma, although the prosecution has suggested Tulsa as an alternate site.
Vinson said that 60 percent of the people polled in the Lawton area showed no bias against McVeigh. He said the average in other cities was just about the same, with 63 percent saying they had no bias. In Tulsa, 75 percent had no bias against Nichols, and results were almost identical in other cities surveyed, Vinson testified. The surveys were conducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Denver, Colorado; and Kansas City, Kansas, as well as in Lawton and Tulsa.
Nichols' attorney, Michael Tigar, argued that potential jurors hide their true feelings, particularly in a case as intense as this one. Tigar told the judge that few other crimes have had as much impact on any community.
The defense has suggested San Francisco, California; Denver; or Charleston, West Virginia, as possible alternate sites for the trial.
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