Nichols, Terry Lynn (1955–)

In 1998, a federal jury found Terry Lynn Nichols guilty in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

On the date of the attack, Nichols was hundreds of miles away at his home in Herington, Kansas. On April 21, 1995, Nichols voluntarily went in for questioning at the Herington Police headquarters, claiming he had heard on the news that he was a material witness. (James Nichols, Terry's brother, was also held as a material witness; all charges against James Nichols were later dropped.) Two hours into the questioning, a warrant was issued for Terry Nichols's arrest, although he was questioned for seven more hours before being arrested in connection with the bombing.

On May 10, 1995, Nichols was formally charged with the bombing and, three months later, both Nichols and Timothy McVeigh were indicted by a federal grand jury. The indictments were identical, charging each man with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, the use of a weapon of mass destruction, destruction by explosive, and eight counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of federal employees in the Murrah building.

Nichols went on trial three months after McVeigh had been convicted and condemned to death. The prosecution used much of the same evidence and called many of the same witnesses, but lacked some of the key elements, such as strong antigovernment motive and significant physical evidence that had contributed to McVeigh's conviction. The government alleged that Nichols, using the alias “Mike Havens,” purchased forty 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer—the main ingredient in the Oklahoma City bomb—from a farm co-op in McPherson, Kansas, on September 30, 1994.

From that date forward, the prosecution linked Nichols to several key stages in the plot, including renting storage lockers and stealing 299 sticks of Tovex explosives, 544 blasting caps, and detonating [Page 261]cord from a quarry in Marion, Kansas, on October 1, 1994. Fingerprint evidence found on a receipt in Nichols's wallet confirmed that Nichols and McVeigh were together on April 13, 1995. Other circumstantial evidence connected Nichols to the robbery of a gun collector in Arkansas, which the prosecution claimed was to fund the bombing conspiracy; the prosecution also suggested that Nichols drove McVeigh from Junction City, Kansas, to Oklahoma City on April 16, 1995, to drop off the getaway car. Nichols's wife, Marife Nichols, could not testify to his whereabouts on April 18; his former wife, Lana Padilla, testified that Nichols had left a package with her, to be opened in the event of his death while away in the Philippines. In this package, she found a letter written to McVeigh in which Nichols urged McVeigh, “Go for it!”

On December 24, 1997, the federal jury found Nichols guilty on one count of conspiracy and eight counts involuntary manslaughter. Unlike McVeigh, he was spared the sentence of death by a deadlocked jury. On June 4, 1998, U.S. District judge Richard P. Matsch sentenced Nichols to life in prison without possibility of parole, as well as to 48 years for the deaths of eight federal employees.

Over the next several years, Nichols lost a series of appeals, including efforts to block an impending trial for state charges, which include 160 counts of first-degree murder for which Nichols could still receive the death penalty.