DA wants back on Nichols case

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Prosecutor Robert Macy wants back on the case against former Kansan Terry Nichols -- co-conspirator in the Oklahoma City bombing tragedy.

In a legal brief today Macy defends public statements he made about a state trial for Nichols. He says he was responding to criticism of his decision to prosecute.

Last month a judge disqualifed Macy from prosecuting Nichols. The district attorney is taking his case now to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

Nichols, formerly of Herington, Kansas, is charged with 160 counts of first-degree murder in the April, 1995, federal building bombing.

A federal jury in Denver convicted him of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight federal agents, and of conspiracy.