No shortage of opinions on Nichols' trial in host town

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Bob Burow is a self-professed renegade with opinions to spare, and one is that Terry Nichols can get a fair trial here.<br><br>Another is that Nichols is guilty of murder and should

Sunday, February 29th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Bob Burow is a self-professed renegade with opinions to spare, and one is that Terry Nichols can get a fair trial here.

Another is that Nichols is guilty of murder and should be put to death for the Oklahoma City bombing, Oklahoma's "pound of flesh," he said, for the 168 men, women and children who died.

"They would not want me," Burow acknowledges, pondering his hypothetical selection to Nichols' jury under the big American flag in his smoke-filled restaurant, What About Bob's. "My mind is made up."

More than 300 Pittsburg County residents must report this week for the start of jury selection Monday in Nichols' state murder trial.

The 48-year-old bombing conspirator already is serving life in federal prison for the deaths of eight federal agents in the blast. Nichols now faces 161 counts of murder, including that of an unborn child whose mother died.

Many residents were not surprised by Judge Steven W. Taylor's decision to move the trial to his home court and home town because of pre-trial publicity in Oklahoma City.

But the fact the trial is going forward at all upsets Ann Prince, a 75-year-old Bob's customer.

"I think it's a waste of money," she said. "He's already been tried. Why go through it again?"

McAlester sits about 130 miles southeast of Oklahoma City in a part of the state dubbed "Little Dixie." The name refers to the cotton plantations that once flourished south of here, but some see the moniker as defining a rebellious streak that makes people here uniquely qualified to decide Nichols' guilt or innocence.

"Everyone down here is so independent thinking," said Jim Johnson, a Vietnam veteran who was in Oklahoma City when the bomb exploded. He believes Taylor will seat a jury "that's going to listen to everything and make an informed decision."

McAlester is also home to the state's toughest criminals and the place where the worst go to die.

If Burow gets his wish, Nichols could face the yellow door of the state's death chamber deep inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a hulking fortress at the edge of town.

That "prison town" image is something City Manager Randy Green would like to somehow shed during the publicity of Nichols' trial.

McAlester, he said, is a "friendly, progressive city" with a diversified economy that includes not only the Department of Corrections and the Army Ammunition Plant but a "far-reaching" medical complex, a Boeing plant, a window manufacturer and other manufacturers.

With an influx of media, victims' families and others, the trial is expected to boost city sales tax coffers by 2.5 to 3 percent, he said. The city's 575 hotel rooms and downtown rental properties are mostly booked for what is expected to be a three- to six-month trial.

Some residents, like Burow, fear the trial could draw an anti-government element. But Green said worries have eased in light of extensive security precautions.

John Carver lives near the courthouse and already is fed up with courthouse security that sends traffic from a main thoroughfare into his neighborhood. He calls the trial "a pain in the butt."

"I don't know if he can get a fair trial anywhere," Carver said. "You blow up a building and kill 168 people and that's a little tough."