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S P E C I A L The Terry Nichols Trial

Nichols jury gets weekend break from deliberations

jury van
The jury van leaves for the weekend
 
December 19, 1997
Web posted at: 6:34 p.m. EST (2334 GMT)

DENVER (CNN) -- Terry Nichols and the families of those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing will have wait at least another weekend before they learn Nichols' fate.

The jury in Nichols' trial deliberated until early afternoon Friday before deciding to recess for the weekend. The jurors began deliberating on Tuesday.

Nichols, 42, is charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the truck-bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The blast killed 168 people and injured more than 500.

Timothy McVeigh, 29, has already been convicted and sentenced to death.



A L S O :

Transcripts for the Trial Today


Lawyers, judge meet in chambers twice

During Friday's deliberations, defense lawyers and prosecutors met twice with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch in his chambers. The second meeting was apparently related to a note sent by the jurors.

Attorneys provided no details on what took place in the meetings. Contents of the jurors' note were similarly not disclosed.

The jurors are not being sequestered, and before letting them go for the weekend Matsch cautioned them again about avoiding outside information concerning the case.

"I'm not going to tell you to sit in a dark room all weekend. I'm sure you have some things to do," he said. "But be very careful."

Family member: 'We can wait'

Marsha Kight
Kight
 

Some family members of victims expressed sympathy for the jurors' desire to take off the weekend before Christmas.

"I'm sure there's a lot of things they're not able to do because of being in that courtroom every day," said Marsha Kight, whose daughter died in the blast.

"The jurors need time to take care of their families, so that's OK," said Jannie Coverdale, grandmother of two victims. "We can wait. We've waited almost three years."

Nichols faces 11 charges -- conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing of federal property and the murders of eight federal law enforcement officers in the line of duty. Each count can be punishable by a death sentence.

Jurors have also been given the option of considering second-degree murder or manslaughter charges, neither of which carry the death penalty. McVeigh's jurors, who reached their verdict after 23 1/2 hours of talks over four days, didn't have those options.

Prosecutors contend Nichols and McVeigh worked together for months to plot the bombing in retaliation for the deadly FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.

The defense has argued that the two men, who met in the Army, were merely business associates who sold army surplus items at gun shows in the Midwest, and that Nichols knew nothing of the bombing plot.

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