Oklahoma bomb accomplice fails in retrial bid

The US Supreme Court has rejected arguments that a co-defendant in the Oklahoma bombing case should get a new trial because of FBI blunders.

Without commenting on its ruling, the court turned down Terry Nichols’ request for a retrial on the grounds that the FBI failed to disclose evidence which could have helped him during his 1997 trial.

Last spring, the FBI revealed that it had "rediscovered" thousands of pages of evidence that were never presented to defence lawyers ahead of the initial trial.

Mr Nichols’ lawyer had argued that the lower courts did not do enough to ensure that the defence got all the evidence that was uncovered during the investigation.

For this reason, he said, a hearing or investigation should be established to decide if a retrial is warranted. Mr Nichols’ defence argued that the FBI may have deliberately withheld information to ensure that a conviction was secured.

He also claimed to have found at least two instances in which the new FBI evidence contradicts points put forward by prosecutors in the original trial.