Closing arguments begin in Nichols penalty phase
From Jim Polk
CNN
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McALESTER, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Closing arguments in the life-or-death penalty phase of the Terry Nichols bombing trial were under way Tuesday with a prosecutor urging jurors to sentence Nichols to death.
"Terry Nichols is a terrorist," prosecutor Suzanne Lister said, asking that Nichols be sentenced to death for his role in "one of the darkest, ugliest days in American history."
"Terry Nichols plotted and planned every step of the way with Timothy McVeigh" to bomb the Oklahoma City Federal Building in April 1995, Lister said. "He gathered, he purchased, he stole, he stored and he combined all the necessary ingredients for the bomb," Lister said.
The defense described Nichols as a pawn of McVeigh, whom it called "dominant, manipulative and controlling."
Attorney Barbara Bergman said Nichols had, at worst, "a lesser role in the bombing," and reminded jurors her client was at his home in Herington, Kansas, the day the attack took place.
Closing arguments were to resume at 9 a.m. (10 a.m. ET) Wednesday.
One more defense lawyer will summarize, followed by the prosecution, and the case will then be handed to the jury.
The jury can choose among a death sentence, life without parole or life with the possibility of parole for Nichols.
Nichols is already serving a life sentence on federal convictions for the deaths of eight federal agents in the blast.
The 161 state charges of which he was convicted last month are for the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus. The death of the fetus resulted in a life sentence, so the question before the jury is whether the death penalty should apply to the other 160 victims.
Nichols did not testify during his trial or the sentencing phase, a fact that Pittsburg County District Judge Steven Taylor told jurors was the convicted killer's right and should not weigh against him.
Listening in the front row closest to the defense table Tuesday were Nichols' mother, Joyce Wilts, his younger sister, Suzanne McDonnell, and the first of his two ex-wives, Lana Padilla.
Testimony in the penalty phase ended earlier Tuesday after the prosecution and defense had called 87 witnesses in the penalty proceedings.
One of the last defense witnesses was Bud Welch, whose daughter, Julie, died in the April 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.
Welch said he reached the point of forgiveness when he met and talked with Bill McVeigh, the father of bomber Timothy McVeigh, and realized that the elder man was "a bigger victim than I."
In other testimony Tuesday, Dustin Hendricks, a detention officer at the Oklahoma County Jail, described Nichols as polite and nice, according to a report from The Associated Press. Nichols was confined at the Oklahoma County Jail for four years before his state trial began.
"He did a lot of reading," Hendricks said in the AP report.
Another Oklahoma County detention officer, Isaac St. Aimie, said that Nichols read the Bible, "did a lot of writing" and prayed. When he felt depressed one day, St. Aimie said, Nichols gave him some Bible verses to read and said he would pray for him, according to the AP.
Timothy McVeigh was executed three years ago Friday. Nichols is serving life without parole for his federal conviction as an accomplice in the bombing.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
