Nichols avoids death penalty

DENVER - Terry Nichols was spared the death penalty yesterday when federal jurors were unable to agree on whether the Oklahoma City bombing conspirator should pay for the crime with his life.

U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch dismissed the panel, which deliberated for 13 hours over two days before notifying him of the impasse, and said he will now assume responsibility for sentencing Nichols.

Matsch cannot by law sentence Nichols to death for his role in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people were killed. The judge can, however, sentence Nichols to a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of release. He asked for recommendations from the prosecution and defense by Feb. 9 and promised a decision after that.

After the jury left the courtroom, Nichols' lawyers shook his hand, hugged him and patted him on the back. Nichols registered little reaction. Clearly distraught victims of the bombing held hands and wept in court, while a few feet away, the Nichols family smiled and embraced.

Matsch said the jurors, who were empowered to make a binding sentencing recommendation, disagreed on the issue that was a legal threshold for deciding on the death penalty - whether Nichols intended people to die in the blast.

The jury foreman, Niki Deutchman, described a panel tortured by doubts, wracked by dissension and deeply skeptical of the government's case. In a 70-minute news conference in a sun-dappled municipal park near her Denver neighborhood, Deutchman said the seven women and five men were a divided and distraught group, rife with tension and discord, when the decision was taken from them.

Deutchman, an obstetrical nurse, also slammed the government for ''dropping the ball'' by not investigating other possible suspects.

''The government wasn't able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a whole lot of the evidence,'' said Deutchman, 47. ''The government didn't do a good job of proving Terry Nichols was greatly involved in this.''

The same jury just 15 days ago found that Nichols, 42, conspired to bomb the building on April 19, 1995, a conviction that carried the possibility of a death sentence. They also found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the eight law enforcement officials. But in a split verdict that foreshadowed yesterday's outcome, the jurors acquitted Nichols of murder, of using a weapon of mass destruction and of actually bombing the building.

Nichols' co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, was convicted last June in a separate trial on 11 counts of conspiracy and murder. He was sentenced to death.

''We of course regret the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision,'' said Nichols' chief federal prosecutor, Larry Mackey, as his tense-looking team stood behind him after yesterday's deadlock.

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