May 25, 1999
Web posted at: 8:55 PM EDT (0055 GMT)

OKLAHOMA CITY (CNN) -- The Oklahoma state Legislature approved a bill Tuesday to divert $1.2 million set aside to try Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols to the relief fund for victims of the devastating May 3 tornadoes.

The House passed the measure on a 96-3 vote following Senate passage on a 39-5 vote Monday.

The bill now goes to the office of Gov. Frank Keating, who supports a state trial for Nichols, to either sign or veto.

"It kind of puts him in a tough spot," his press secretary, John Cox, told CNN.

"The state needs to replenish the emergency fund (for tornado victims). On the other hand, he feels Bob Macy (the district attorney) should be able to have a state trial. We'll try to work out some kind of middle ground," he said.

The tornadoes, the most severe ever to hit Oklahoma City, killed 44 people and destroyed or damaged an estimated 7,000 homes in central Oklahoma. Fifteen counties were declared federal disaster areas.

Damages are expected to reach at least $1 billion, Cox said.

The governor's office reports damages from the May 3 tornadoes could cost roughly $1 billion

Cox said "it'll be a few days" before Keating acts on the bill. He said he could sign the measure and ask the Legislature to come up with additional funds for the trial.

Nichols and his ex-Army mate Timothy McVeigh were convicted in separate federal trials in Denver in 1997 in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people and wounded 500 others. But Nichols escaped the death penalty that McVeigh got and was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter.

Those trials involved the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers killed in the attack. Macy, hoping to win a death sentence against Nichols, wants to try him in the deaths of the other 160 victims. Hearings on motions in the state case could begin in June.

The bill is the result of a bipartisan effort by 10 state senators who contend "it would be in the best interest of the state, our community and the bombing victims to forgo another painful and expensive trial" -- a case they estimated could wind up costing taxpayers as much as $20 million.

Macy, 69, the district attorney for Oklahoma County who is not up for re-election until 2002, has contended he is simply following the wishes of his constituents.

"Every place I go, people say, 'Don't let them back you off,'" he was quoted in the May 24 edition of the National Law Journal. "I'm going to do what they want."