Innocent plea entered in Oklahoma bomb case

THE judge overseeing bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' state trial on 162 first-degree murder counts entered a not guilty plea on Nichols' behalf during arraignment yesterday.

Nichols, wearing a grey jacket and white dress shirt, said nothing and sat with his hands in his lap during the hearing, not looking at those in the makeshift courtroom in the basement of the Oklahoma County jail.

District Judge Steven Taylor was making his first appearance after being assigned the case by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Defence lawyers asked for a jury trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Nichols, already serving a life prison sentence on federal bombing convictions, was bound over for trial on May 13 following a preliminary hearing where prosecutors linked him to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.

Nichols, 48, was previously convicted on federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers killed in the blast. The state charges involve victims who were not part of that case, and two foetuses whose mothers died in the bombing.

Since Nichols was brought to Oklahoma in January 2000, his attorneys have said publicity about the bombing and Nichols' federal conviction made it impossible to get a fair trial. Defence attorney Brian Hermanson, who has asked judges "to shut this case down" and dismiss the charges, says the publicity had stripped Nichols of his constitutional right to a presumption of innocence on the state charges.

Timothy McVeigh, who masterminded the blast, was executed two years ago for federal murder convictions. They said Nichols and McVeigh prepared the 4,000-pound fuel oil-and-fertiliser bomb together and that Nichols participated in robberies and burglaries to raise money and obtain equipment for the plot.

Nichols was at his Kansas home the day of the explosion, but prosecutors say he helped McVeigh pack the bomb inside a truck a day earlier and helped stash his friend's getaway car.