State responds to Nichols motions

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- State prosecutors say there is no need to move bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' preliminary hearing out of Oklahoma County. Assistant District Attorney Fern Smith filed a

Friday, February 25th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- State prosecutors say there is no need to move bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' preliminary hearing out of Oklahoma County. Assistant District Attorney Fern Smith filed a response to a defense motion Thursday that said a judge assigned to preside over the hearing can be just as fair in Oklahoma County as he can anywhere else.

Associate District Judge Robert M. Murphy Jr. has scheduled a preliminary hearing for Aug. 7, at which time Murphy will decide whether Nichols, 44, will stand trial on 160 first-degree murder charges in connection with the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Nichols' attorneys asked that the hearing be moved. But Smith maintains they have confused the site of the preliminary hearing with a change of venue for a trial, where jurors would decide Nichols' fate. Smith said no jurors will be needed for Nichols' preliminary hearing.

Nichols also requested a site that was safe and open to the public. His initial hearing was held in the basement of the Oklahoma County Jail, and prosecutors want the preliminary hearing to be held there as well.

"There is no safer place to hold defendant's preliminary hearing than in the Oklahoma County Jail," Smith's response said. Smith also urged Murphy to dismiss defense motions alleging Nichols cannot be tried on certain charges for lack of jurisdiction and because the time limit for prosecution has expired.

Nichols was brought to Oklahoma City on Jan. 31 from Colorado, where he was serving a life prison sentence on federal bombing convictions. A co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, was sentenced to death following a separate federal trial.