Cameras banned from Nichols trial
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Cameras banned from Nichols trial
- A District Court judge in Oklahoma City ruled that cameras will not be allowed in or near the courtroom during Terry Nichols’ upcoming murder trial for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building.
Feb. 5, 2004 — Cameras have been banned from the murder trial of Terry Nichols, a conspirator in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Nichols was convicted in federal court in 1995 of manslaughter in the death of eight federal officers and conspiring to commit a crime. Although he is currently serving a life sentence in prison, he will be tried in a state district court March 1 on 161 counts of murder.
Oklahoma law gives defendants the right to bar cameras from their trials. Nichols requested the ban, and Judge Steven Taylor of District Court in Oklahoma City granted the order Jan. 27. Cameras, cell phones and laptops are also banned from the entire second floor of the courthouse, where Taylor’s courtroom is located.
Nichols helped Timothy McVeigh pack a truck with explosives a day before the bombing in April 1995. McVeigh, who was convicted of murder, conspiracy and explosives charges in the attack, was executed by lethal injection in 2001. Prosecutors are seeking the same fate for Nichols.
Nichols is charged with the murder of 160 people and one fetus.
— LH
© 2004 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
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