Judge: DA's Staff Can Try Nichols

A prosecutor dismissed from the state trial of Terry Nichols for the Oklahoma City bombing is staying away from the case as ordered, a judge decided Monday.

Nichols, already convicted on federal charges, faces trial on 160 counts of first-degree murder for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. No trial date has been set yet.

Judge Ray Dean Linder removed District Attorney Bob Macy and his entire office from Nichols' case in October after ruling that Macy had violated the rules of professional conduct as well as a gag order that prohibits anyone directly involved with the case from discussing it.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in December upheld Macy's disqualification but declined to disqualify his staff. The court said Macy's first assistant, John Jacobsen, could lead the office's prosecution team in Macy's absence.

Linder said Monday at a pretrial hearing that procedures for screening Macy from the case were reasonable and that Jacobsen is in charge of the prosecution.

Prosecutors said Macy had no contact with the trial and that members of the prosecution team had been moved to a different area of the district attorney's office to avoid contact with him.

Attorneys for Nichols complained Monday that although Macy had been disqualified, Nichols must still live with the legacy of Macy's actions, including the filing of the murder charges and the state's decision to seek the death penalty.

And last week, Nichols' lawyers argued the newly dedicated museum chronicling the bombing is a reason that their client won't be able to get a fair trial on the state charges.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial Center opened on February 19, just blocks from the Oklahoma County Jail where pretrial hearings for Nichols have been ongoing.

"Normally, the passage of time dissipates the effect of prejudicial pretrial publicity. That has not happened here," Nichols attorneys wrote in the 28-page brief.

His attorneys wrote that their client would not be presumed innocent anywhere in Oklahoma, noting that the museum refers to Nichols and Timothy McVeigh as "the perpetrators."

"Although almost six years have passed since the bombing, not only have the raw emotions of anger and hatred not abated ... they continue to be fanned by events which cause the citizens of this state to continue to relive the horror of April 19, 1995."

McVeigh, who was convicted on murder and conspiracy charges in the bombing by a federal jury, now awaits execution. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. on May 16.

Nichols, 45, is already serving a life imprisonment sentence for his federal conviction on eight involuntary manslaughter counts and conspiracy.

Separately, a federal jury convicted co-conspirator McVeigh on murder and conspiracy charges in the bombing. He is waiting execution.

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