The state jury that convicted Terry Nichols of murder for the Oklahoma City bombing heard opening statements on Tuesday in a penalty phase during which they will decide whether Nichols should be executed. Last Wednesday, the jury found Nichols guilty of 161 counts of murder in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in a crime that rocked America’s sense of domestic security. The penalty phase is expected to include testimony from Nichols’ mother, who will plead for her son’s life, and family members of the victims who died when the blast detonated by executed bomber Timothy McVeigh ripped apart the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The Oklahoma jury can sentence Nichols to life in prison or decide that he should be executed in the state’s death chamber, located a few miles away from the courthouse in the southeastern Oklahoma city of McAlester. The penalty phase is expected to take about two weeks, court observers said. Full Story
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