Bomb Trial Starts Today for Nichols

DENVER â€”  The trial of Terry L. Nichols gets underway today with the search for jurors unaffected by the tears and testimony of the first Oklahoma City bombing trial, which ended with his co-defendant, Timothy J. McVeigh, sentenced to death.

Defense attorney Michael E. Tigar was turned down when he argued that it was no longer possible to find an impartial jury in Colorado, where McVeigh was convicted. U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch said it would be difficult to find anyone anywhere who hadn’t heard details about the bombing case.

Attorneys and Matsch will select the panel of jurors from a pool of 500 prospects. The process is expected to last two weeks to a month, officials said.

Nichols was indicted two years ago on charges of conspiracy, use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing federal property and murdering eight federal law enforcement officers in the line of duty, all punishable by death. McVeigh was convicted of the same charges.

Nichols’ attorneys say he didn’t know about the bombing ahead of time and cooperated with investigators after he turned himself in. And they say he was home in Herington, Kan., when the bomb went off at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and injuring more than 500 others.