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 / T H E P L A Y E R S / C N N S T O R I E S / L I N K S

Nichols escapes death penalty

(CNN) -- A jury deadlock during the sentencing phase of the second Oklahoma City bombing trial helped defendant Terry Nichols escape the death penalty. Nichols' penalty will now be decided by Judge Richard Matsch.

Under federal law, a death sentence can only be imposed by a jury. Matsch had promised he would issue a penalty of less than life in prison if jurors decided to put the decision in his hands.

The jury had three options: issue a death sentence, send Nichols to prison for life without parole, or send the case back to the judge. Matsch told the jurors they had done their job after deliberating over two days.

Nichols was convicted on December 23 of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the bombing, with the jury finding he was a junior partner rather than an equal to Timothy McVeigh in the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

The jury found Nichols not guilty of two other counts: use of a weapon of mass destruction and destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by explosive. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for 41 hours over six days before reaching the unusually split verdicts.

The prosecutors' case, built on fertilizer receipts, phone records and Ryder truck sightings, was not enough to convince the jury that Nichols was an equal to McVeigh.

Nichols, who was in his Kansas farmhouse more than 200 miles away at the time of the bombing, was portrayed by his defense team as a family man who was "building a life, not a bomb."

Unlike the jurors who convicted McVeigh of murder and conspiracy and sentenced him to death for the bombing that killed 168 people, the panel that weighed Nichols' fate on the same 11 counts as McVeigh had the option of returning a conviction for second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.

Second-degree murder, which carries no more than a life term, is killing "without premeditation and malice." Involuntary manslaughter, which alone carries no more than six years in prison, was defined as "the unlawful killing of a human being without malice."

In Oklahoma City, District Attorney Bob Macy has said he would seek 160 murder charges against Nichols and McVeigh in state court for the other deaths in the bombing.

Nichols' verdict came six months after McVeigh was convicted on all murder, conspiracy and weapons charges. McVeigh's verdict was reached after 23 1/2 hours of deliberations over four days.

Correspondent Tony Clark and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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 / T H E P L A Y E R S / C N N S T O R I E S / L I N K S

Newsmaker profile: Terry Nichols

Sound off on our message boards

Tell us what you think!

You said it...

Nichols escapes death penalty

Related stories:

Sound off on our message boards

Terms under which this service is provided to you.