wfn.org | Widow finds "some justice" in life sentence for Nichols

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 8, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York      {347}

By United Methodist News Service

The widow of an Oklahoma City bombing victim takes "some consolation" in
the life sentence handed to convicted conspirator Terry Nichols, but she
remains angry at the jury, which refused to render the death penalty
against him.

"Just the fact that he's not going to be re-entering public life is a
sense of some justice," said Anne Marshall, an executive with the United
Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Marshall's husband, Raymond Johnson, was among the 168 people killed
when a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building
on April 19, 1995.

Nichols, 43, was sentenced June 4 to life in prison without the
possibility of parole for conspiracy to bomb the Oklahoma City building.
He also received eight concurrent six-year terms in prison for the
deaths of eight federal agents in the blast.

In addition, U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch ordered Nichols to
pay $14.5 million in restitution to the government. During the
sentencing, Matsch called the case a crime against the U.S. Constitution
as well as against the human victims. 

Nichols was convicted in December of conspiracy to blow up a federal
building and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Some had feared that Nichols would get off lightly because the Denver
jury had acquitted him of first-degree murder charges and had deadlocked
during the penalty phase in early January, sending the case back to the
judge for sentencing.

Marshall had been angry that the jurors could not reach a death penalty
verdict. She believes they took the case too lightly and didn't listen
to the evidence. 

She said she was pleased "with the fact that the U.S. attorney's office
did such a good job of portraying him (Nichols) as an enemy of the
Constitution" during the sentencing hearing. She thinks the prosecutors'
persuasiveness contributed to the stiff sentence.

The U.S. attorney's office is setting up a meeting on June 20 for
victims' families to talk with jurors from the trial of Timothy McVeigh,
according to Marshall. McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death for
his role in the bombing, and Marshall said she had no problems with that
jury.

"I would really like to talk to the forewoman of the Nichols trial," she
added.

Many family members of victims "have vested a lot of hope" that Nichols
will eventually receive the death penalty after being tried on state
charges in Oklahoma later this year, Marshall said. Bob Macy, the
district attorney for Oklahoma County, has a strong conviction record in
death penalty cases, she said.

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