DA: Nichols Deserves Death

The scene at Oklahoma City’s bombing memorial Wednesday was designed to bring closure to the catastrophe. All the same, the county district attorney tells CBS News Correspondent Scott Pelley,
the city can’t really heal until there is one more death.

Bob Macy insists Terry Nichols must die.

Nichols and Timothy McVeigh were convicted in a Denver federal court of murdering eight law enforcement agents in the bombing—a capital crime.

McVeigh was sentenced to death.

Nichols, who helped build the bomb but didn’t detonate it, was sentenced to life without parole.

The memories of the bombing have kept Macy away from the scene for four years. This week, the Oklahoma County District Attorney returned to see the memorial.

"It was the worst day of my life," Macy recalled. Asked if death were the only punishment that fits this crime, Macy said, "You should have been down there the first four or five days. There would be no question in your mind…I’ve sent several people to death row for killing one person. I certainly feel that death would be the appropriate punishment for killing 19 babies."

Macy has charged Nichols under state statutes with the murders of the children in the Murrah Building daycare and 141 other civilians. The earlier trial was on federal charges.

Nichols, who is kept alone in a cell on the 13th floor of the Oklahoma County Jail, is appealing his federal conviction. By next year, however, he may be facing a completely new trial on state charges.

McVeigh is also appealing, and Macy says that in the event that McVeigh's federal conviction is overturned or his death sentence commuted, he will bring state charges against the bomber and ask an Oklahoma jury to sentence him to death.

Macy has vowed to pursue both Nichols and McVeigh for "as long as it takes."

In March, McVeigh gave his first television interview to 60 Minutes, in which he said he has few regrets.

"There are moments, but no one that stands out," he said.