Bombing conspirator jailed for life

OKLAHOMA CITY bombing conspirator Terry Nichols yesterday asked for forgiveness and offered to help victims’ families with the healing process as he was sentenced to life without parole on 161 murder charges.

“My heart truly goes out to all the victims and survivors and to everyone who was affected by the Oklahoma City bombing,” Nichols said.

“Words cannot adequately express the sorrow I have felt over the years for the grief they have all suffered,” he said.

District Judge Steven Taylor ordered Nichols to serve the life term on each of 161 counts of first-degree murder and ordered the sentences to run consecutively.

Nichols had already been sentenced to life without parole in 1998 on federal bombing charges.

Nichols was spared the death penalty on both the state and federal counts when jurors could not agree on a sentence.

Nichols, aged 49, in his lengthy statement yesterday, asked for forgiveness, asked “everyone to acknowledge God,” and offered anyone his help in the healing process.

But Taylor called Nichols a “terrorist,” saying the redemption and atonement Nichols seeks is only the beginning.

“Your criminal acts in this case are historic in proportion,” the judge said. “No American citizen has ever brought this kind of devastation, you are in US history the No 1 mass murderer. What could motivate you to do this? There are no answers. I hope that you never have a waking moment that you do not consider those 161 souls that you took away,” the judge said.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted of federal conspiracy and murder charges and executed on June 11, 2001. “My views were not the same as Timothy McVeigh,” Nichols said. “We may have had some similarities, but they were not the same.”

Nichols also was sentenced to 10 years and a $5,000 fine for a conspiracy count, and 35 years and a $25,000 fine for first-degree arson.

He was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution and $10,000 per count to a victims compensation fund, as well as legal fees.