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| S P E C I A L | The Terry Nichols Trial |
Closing arguments under way in Nichols trial
December 15, 1997
Web posted at: 12:08 p.m. EST (1708 GMT)From Correspondent Tony Clark
DENVER (CNN) -- Terry Nichols "intentionally and knowingly" joined convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building "and kill the people inside it," prosecutor Beth Wilkinson told jurors Monday as closing arguments got under way in the second Oklahoma City bombing trial.
"This was no mistake, no coincidence," Wilkinson told the jury of seven women and five men.
"It was not a toss of a coin -- heads, Terry Nichols is in; tails, Terry Nichols is out ... (They were) choices Terry Nichols made intentionally and knowingly," she said.
The court proceedings started a few minutes behind schedule after more members of Nichols' family showed up in court for the closing arguments, which are expected to effectively focus on circumstantial evidence vs. reasonable doubt.
As a general strategy, the prosecution was expected to outline Nichols' friendship with McVeigh, showing the pre-paid phone cards they shared and the phone records that link them together at key times in the government's conspiracy theory.
Wilkinson also will describe guns, blasting caps, plastic barrels, a fertilizer receipt and other items found in Nichols' home that appear to tie him to the robbery of a quarry and an Arkansas gun collector -- robberies the prosecution alleges helped pay for construction of the bomb that ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.
Nichols is charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with that attack, which killed 168 people. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted. McVeigh has already been convicted and sentenced to death.
Despite the circumstantial evidence arrayed against Nichols, the defense team also has a number of cards to play for the jury. First and foremost is that Nichols was not in Oklahoma City on that fateful morning.
Defense attorney Michael Tigar, who speaks French and quotes everything from the law to Sherlock Holmes to Shakespeare, will use his down-home, country lawyer style on the jury.
He'll point out that not a single government witness testified that they heard Nichols say he wanted to blow up anything. He'll depict Nichols as a family man, while describing key government witness Michael Fortier as a liar and drug user.
Tigar will raise the possibility that McVeigh used people other than Nichols to build the bomb. He'll also point to sightings of Ryder trucks, similar to the one used in the blast, that were at the wrong place at the wrong time to fit the prosecution's theory of what happened.
For Tigar, the key is to plant in the jury's mind reasonable doubts about the government's case.
After Wilkinson and Tigar argue, the last word will come from lead prosecutor Larry Mackey. In a soft, fatherly voice, he will describe the human toll of the bombing and then ask jurors to remain focused on one thing -- not McVeigh or Ryder trucks or John Doe No. 2 but on the evidence against Nichols.
Closing arguments will likely take all day Monday. The jury would then get its instructions on the law Tuesday morning and, a short time later, begin deliberating Nichols' fate.
T H E N I C H O L S T R I A L / T H E M c V E I G H T R I A L
T H E B O M B I N G / C N N S T O R I E S / L I N K S
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