Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Terry Nichols Confessed
The Daily Oklahoman ^ | November 28, 2004 | Nolan Clay

Posted on 11/28/2004 8:00:07 AM PST by marway

Terry Nichols confessed during secret plea negotiations last year that he had a major role in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He also stated that he knew of no other conspirators in the attack that left 168 dead, including 19 children.

"I am unaware as to who was involved in the planning besides McVeigh,'' he stated.

However, Nichols refused to disclose where he hid stolen blasting caps left over from the making of the bomb.

Nichols, 49, never testified at his 1997 federal trial or this year's state trial. His attorneys claimed he had no part in the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They suggested McVeigh had help from others and set up Nichols to take the blame.

Nichols was convicted at his federal trial of the bombing conspiracy and manslaughter of eight federal agents.

He was convicted at his state trial of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and 161 counts of first-degree murder.

The state case focused on the 160 other casualties, as well as the loss of a fetus.

Nichols was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of release in both cases. He avoided the death penalty because jurors could not agree on that punishment.

Nichols made the admission last year as part of an effort to persuade state prosecutors to drop their request for a death sentence. The negotiations fell through because prosecutors thought he was not forthcoming enough.

Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane said Saturday: "Although I had nothing to do with the release of this document, I cannot say that I am disappointed that the public finally gets a glimpse of my frustration with Terry Nichols, and his refusal to tell us where certain bomb-making materials are still hidden, even to this day... ''

(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: bombing; nichols; okc; okcbombing; oklahomacity; terry; terrynichols
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-57 next last
Hope this isn't a duplicate. I did a search, but didn't see anything up on it yet. You can see the transcript of questions asked to Nichols and his responses at the link to article.
1 posted on 11/28/2004 8:00:07 AM PST by marway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane said ... the public finally gets a glimpse of my frustration with Terry Nichols, and his refusal to tell us where certain bomb-making materials are still hidden, even to this day... ''

Boo-hoo for you! Maybe if you "pretty-pleased' him? He's got life without parole - what possible incentive could you give him to make him want to talk to YOU anymore?

2 posted on 11/28/2004 8:14:49 AM PST by solitas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marway

If he's still protecting the blasting caps, why would we
assume he's not still protecting John Doe #2?


3 posted on 11/28/2004 8:17:17 AM PST by Boundless
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marway
"...the public finally gets a glimpse of my frustration with Terry Nichols, and his refusal to tell us where certain bomb-making materials are still hidden, even to this day..."

Call me a cynic, but the only possible reason he would not reveal "where certain bomb-making materials are still hidden, even to this day" is that there aren't any.

The purpose of a plea bargain is to close the books on a case with a notch in the prosecutor's belt.

The purpose of a plea bargain is NOT to find the truth.

My guess would be that Mr. Nichols signed whatever papers were put in front of him by the prosecutor, regardless of their veracity, just to get the death penalty off the table.

4 posted on 11/28/2004 8:21:43 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Boundless

Exactly.


5 posted on 11/28/2004 8:22:10 AM PST by BenLurkin (Big government is still a big problem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: marway
Nichols was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of release in both cases.
He avoided the death penalty because jurors could not agree on that punishment.


As a long-time Okie, all I can say is that VERY GOOD defense lawyering (and/or
"Judge Itoh" adiminstration) must have saved Terry Nichols bacon.

Incredible that Nichols didn't get a quick return of a death penalty...
or been offed by a fellow inmate yet.
6 posted on 11/28/2004 8:26:25 AM PST by VOA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marway

What about those trips to the Phillipines, Terry?

Jayna Davis - THE THIRD TERRORIST - heavily documents the ME involvement in OKC


7 posted on 11/28/2004 8:32:36 AM PST by Lexington Green (Patriotism is a moral value.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Boundless

And his living family members


8 posted on 11/28/2004 8:38:05 AM PST by joesnuffy ("The merit of our Constitution was, not that it promotes democracy, but checks it." Horatio Seymour)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: marway

I have a question: How many other Federal prisoners have been executed since Tim McVey was?

Answer:

Since 1963 only three people have been executed by the federal government of the United States:

Louis Jones on March 18, 2003 for rape and murder of Pvt. Tracie McBride

Juan Raul Garza on June 19, 2001 for murdering three persons in conjunction with a drug-smuggling ring

Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001 for the Oklahoma City bombing


Source link: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/List%20of%20individuals%20executed%20by%20the%20United%20States

Why was there such a rush to execute McVey?

[Just asking.....]

Between 1950 and 1963, 13 people were executed (not counting those executed under military law)

From 1963 until Tim McVey in June 2001, zero were executed.


9 posted on 11/28/2004 8:38:16 AM PST by TomGuy (America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marway
Nichols made the admission last year as part of an effort to persuade state prosecutors to drop their request for a death sentence. The negotiations fell through because prosecutors thought he was not forthcoming enough.

It's generally accepted that prisoners threatened to the death sentence may be willing to stretch the truth or to lie outright in order to strike a plea bargain. So saying that he "knew of" no other conspirator doesn't necessarily mean very much.

I can't imagine why he would hesitate to say where the blasting caps were buried if he knew. So maybe he didn't know. But it is easily conceivable that he might withhold evidence to protect a co-conspirator. And it's also conceivable that the prosecutor refused to entertain the idea that there were other conspirators, under pressure from the FBI and political authorities.

In other words, this bogus press release of a statement that was never signed or agreed to doesn't mean very much when weighed against a great deal of evidence that there were a number of other participants in the bombing.

10 posted on 11/28/2004 8:51:48 AM PST by Cicero (Nil illegitemus carborundum est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TomGuy

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe McVeigh refused any further appeals. I would suspect that the others you mentioned drew out the appeals process as long as they could.


11 posted on 11/28/2004 8:52:40 AM PST by marway (Say NO to judicial activism!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: marway

Dont kill him, send him to Gitmo and find out what he was doing in the Phillipines with potential Al Qaeda associates.


12 posted on 11/28/2004 8:55:02 AM PST by gopwinsin04
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lexington Green
As does Others Unknown- the Oklahoma City Bombing Case and Conspiracy by Stephan Jones. Granted he was Mc Veigh's lawyer, but this is an incredible story which illustrates, among many other things, the duplicity of the government and the laziness of the Old media.
13 posted on 11/28/2004 8:58:45 AM PST by fat city (Julius Rosenberg's soviet code name was "Liberal")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Lexington Green

The book The Third Terrorist was so well researched and written that Davis has convinced several friends of mine who previously thought her theories were all tinfoil hat stuff.

Former CIA chief, James Woolsey endorsed her work and I wish he'd speak about it more frequently.


14 posted on 11/28/2004 9:04:17 AM PST by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: TomGuy
Why was there such a rush to execute McVey? [Just asking.....]

A building blew up. 168 dead, hundreds injured.

15 posted on 11/28/2004 9:04:33 AM PST by HairOfTheDog (<<<loves her hubbit and the horse he rode in on :~D)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: no one in particular

Oh - I see now, people are up to their necks in conspiracy theories.... forget I was ever here.


16 posted on 11/28/2004 9:07:01 AM PST by HairOfTheDog (<<<loves her hubbit and the horse he rode in on :~D)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: marway
This smells. Why would Terry confess to some but not all of it? C-BS detector hits maximum scale!
17 posted on 11/28/2004 9:07:33 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ ("Sure is a nice day for making things right." Boss Spearman. NSDQ, De Opresso Libre)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
I don't have the brightest pixels here but if federal and state employees would stop attacking the idea that others may have been involved (despite what a fine upstanding man like Terry Nichols says) just maybe they could find those blasting caps and more -- I think it's the more that they are worried about.

They could check the status of the OKC survivors v. Iraq filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia two years ago. Is it still on going? I don't know.

They could ask former CIA Director James Woolsey, what he meant when he said, "When the full stories of these two incidents (1993 WTC Center bombing and 1995 Oklahoma City bombing) are finally told, those who permitted the investigations to stop short will owe big explanations to these two brave women (Middle East expert Laurie Mylroie and journalist Jayna Davis). And the nation will owe them a debt of gratitude." "The Iraq Connection," Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2002

Or how about this, in his discussions about his Vanity Fair interview with a top Pentagon official Sam Tanenhaus suggested that Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz believes there just may be a Saddam connection to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Yes, IMO it's the more that they are worried about and I don't mean Michael.

P.S. What ever happend to Sen. Spector's promise to Jayna Davis to do something?

18 posted on 11/28/2004 9:10:45 AM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (MSM Fraudcasters are skid marks on journalism's clean shorts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cicero
It's generally accepted that prisoners threatened to the death sentence may be willing to stretch the truth or to lie outright in order to strike a plea bargain. So saying that he "knew of" no other conspirator doesn't necessarily mean very much.

It doesn't sound to me as if Nichols is saying he "knew of no other consirator," so much as he is saying he did not know the other conspirators. Consider:

McVeigh was very careful to make sure that all discussions were held in private between him and I and, it seems, between him and others.

I am unaware as to who was involved in the planning besides McVeigh.

(Note also that the meaning of "planning" here might be Clintonesque.)

ML/NJ

19 posted on 11/28/2004 9:20:53 AM PST by ml/nj
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Lexington Green

Sounds like many freepers need to read, The Third Terrorist by Jayna Davis.


20 posted on 11/28/2004 9:21:44 AM PST by Nephi (AIDS: The disease originally known as GRIDS (Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-57 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson