Jury selection began on Monday in the state murder trial of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, who is already serving a life sentence on federal manslaughter charges and now could face the death penalty. Nichols, 48, is spending the rest of his life in prison for his convictions on the federal charges of manslaughter and conspiracy in the deaths of eight federal officers among the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing. He was convicted in a federal court in 1997. The Oklahoma trial is on 160 first-degree murder charges for the other people killed in the blast and will almost certainly bring the death penalty for Nichols if he is convicted. One more murder charge may be added for a fetus that perished when a pregnant mother died in the blast. Jury selection was expected to take several weeks as lawyers question a pool of about 400 potential jurors in McAlester, about 120 miles southeast of the blast site in Oklahoma City, prosecutors said. The trial, expected to take at least six months, has created a divide in Oklahoma with recent polls showing some 70 percent of respondents do not think it is needed. Full Story
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