McALESTER, Okla. - Two members of the jury considering sentencing for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols were dismissed Wednesday and were replaced by the last two remaining alternate jurors. advertisement
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State District Judge Steven Taylor did not explain what the two jurors did wrong, but he strongly told the rest of the panel not to discuss the case outside of regular jury deliberations.“Do not discuss sentencing,” Taylor said after a one-hour closed meeting with prosecutors and defense attorneys. “Do not allow anyone to discuss it with you.” One of the jurors dismissed Wednesday was the jury foreman during the first phase of the trial, Wayne Gates. Taylor ordered Gates and the other dismissed juror, Norma Jean Carrion, not to discuss the case until the trial was over. The trial began with 12 jurors and six alternates, but before the opening of testimony, three jurors were excused because they were distant relatives of a member of the prosecutor’s staff. A fourth juror was excused last month after he had a heart attack. Life-or-death question
Nichols was convicted last week of 161 first-degree murder charges in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people in April 1995. Now, the jury is considering whether he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison. The sentencing phase began Tuesday, when more than two dozen witnesses testified about loved ones they lost. Testimony continued Wednesday. Jeannine Gist, whose lost her daughter, Karen Gist Carr, fought back tears as she recalled Carr’s energy and love of sports. Jurors also dabbed tears from their eyes as Gist testified that her daughter had appeared to her in dreams. “I should have gone before she did,” said Gist, choking with emotion. “I’m her mother. I just should have gone first.” Jacquelyn Bowman, who lost her father, David Jack Walker, an engineer for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, glared at Nichols as she read from a statement in which she said her father “was everything to me.” Nichols stared back at Bowman. “Many times I have wished that I could go to sleep and not wake up so I wouldn’t have to deal with this emotional pain,” she said. ‘A very proud mother’
Constance Favorite, whose daughter, Air Force Airman Lakesha Levy, was killed, brought jurors and spectators to tears as she recalled the last telephone conversation they had two days before the bombing. “Lakesha was a very proud mother. She would have done anything for her son and her husband,” she said. Thomas Richard Hall of the U.S. General Services Administration, who was seriously injured in the bombing, testified that it felt as if he was being electrocuted as wiring and other debris fell down around him. “The pain would get so great I would pass out,” he said. Nichols is already serving life in prison on federal bombing charges for the deaths of eight federal agents in the bombing. Oklahoma prosecutors brought the state murder charges for the 160 other people who died and a fetus whose mother was killed in the explosion. © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | MORE FROM CRIME & PUNISHMENT |
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