Innocent plea entered for Nichols

Defense asks for jury trialOKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) --The judge overseeing bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' state trial entered a not guilty plea on Nichols' behalf during arraignment Tuesday. The defense asked for a trial date more than 1 1/2 years away.Because the defense has a motion pending to dismiss the charges, Nichols stood mute rather than enter a plea, so District Judge Steven Taylor entered it on his behalf. The defendant sat with his hands in his lap during the hearing, not looking at those in the makeshift courtroom in the basement of the Oklahoma County jail.Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty on 162 counts of first-degree murder. They said they will be ready for trial by November or December, while defense attorney Brian Hermanson suggested January 2005.Taylor did not immediately rule on a trial date. He scheduled another hearing for May 30 and said he hopes to have up to six hearings in June on various motions in the closely watched case.Nichols, 48, is already serving life in a federal prison for the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others. He was convicted on federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers.But he now faces a state trial involving all other victims, including two fetuses whose mothers died in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.Defense attorneys also asked for a jury trial, saying it will be difficult if not impossible to find an impartial jury in Oklahoma.Hermanson, who has asked judges "to shut this case down" and dismiss the charges, said publicity has stripped Nichols of his constitutional right to a presumption of innocence on the state charges.Prosecutors say the bombing was revenge against the government for the deadly siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier. They said Nichols and his Army buddy, Timothy McVeigh, prepared the 4,000-pound fuel oil-and-fertilizer bomb together and that Nichols participated in robberies and burglaries to raise money and obtain equipment for the plot.Nichols was home in Herington, Kansas, the day of the explosion, but prosecutors say he helped McVeigh pack the bomb inside a Ryder truck a day earlier and helped stash his friend's getaway car. McVeigh was executed two years ago after he was convicted of federal murder charges.Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/20/nichols.trial.ap/index.html Top