Juror: Sympathy spared Nichols
Many relatives of Oklahoma City victims angry Nichols escaped death
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 For the second time, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols has escaped the death penalty.
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McALESTER, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Some of the jurors who voted to spare Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols the death penalty did so because they felt sorry for him, another juror who supported the death penalty told CNN Saturday.
Cecil Bill Reeder said the deliberations were "very emotional," but in the end, he didn't feel justice was served.
The former civil service employee, who retired from the local Army munitions plant, said he wanted to "apologize to the victims' families for not getting justice for their loved ones."
The jury convicted Nichols on 161 counts of murder for his role in the April 19, 1995, bombing but could not reach the required unanimous decision on whether he should be sentenced to death. Seven voted for execution and five voted against.
"They thought he could do some good in prison because he found religion," juror Reeder said.
But when asked by the other jurors what it would "take to justify death penalty if not for this case," he said, "no one could answer. No one would say."
Some of the victims' family members asked the same question.
"How many people do you have to kill before you get the death sentence? Is it 500, a thousand?" asked Roy Sells, whose wife was killed in the bombing. "I'd just like to ask them that question."
"This is unbelievable to me," another relative said, pointing to all the evidence presented by prosecutors.
Gloria Taylor, whose daughter Teresa Lauderdale was among the 168 people killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, echoed those sentiments.
"He deserved it," Taylor told The Associated Press, "for 160 murders of innocent people, men, women and children. What more would it take?"
The task of determining Nichols' fate in the state trial now falls to Judge Steven Taylor, whose options are limited to life in prison with or without the chance for parole. Sentencing was set for August 9. (Full story)
Nichols is already serving a federal life sentence for manslaughter in the deaths of eight federal agents who were killed in the bombing. He escaped the death penalty in that 1998 trial in Denver, Colorado, as well.
Nichols was convicted of helping bombing mastermind Timothy McVeigh assemble the bomb and obtain the ammonium nitrate fertilizer used to build it. The bombing took place on the second anniversary of the deadly FBI raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas -- the focus of McVeigh's anger at the federal government
McVeigh was convicted by a federal jury and put to death by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001.
Nellie May Craig, a juror in the state trial who would not reveal which way she voted, told CNN: "It's been a tough three-and-a-half months."
"I'm unhappy we couldn't agree," she said.
Juror Teresa Ann Zellmar said the 18 hours of deliberations were "a real difficult time."
"It was a fair trial," she said. "We did the best job we could."
Reeder said the jury voted by secret ballot "every two hours or so" during the deliberations. The jurors didn't know for certain who voted which way, he said, "but you could sort of tell by what they were saying."
"We've been married 47 years and this is the first time I've seen him cry," his wife Mary said. "And he's still crying."
Darlene Welch, whose 4-year-old-niece was killed in the bombing, told The Associated Press she was glad that Nichols was now a convicted murderer.
"Of course, we're disappointed," she told the AP. "But our victory comes in that he has been identified as a mass murderer."
During his trial, Nichols has been held at a state prison that houses Oklahoma's death row. The prosecution and defense called 87 witnesses over five days of testimony in the penalty phase, many of them relatives still grieving over their losses nine years ago.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
