McVeigh Lawyer Says Nichols’ Statements to FBI to Be Limited

The judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case has ruled that suspect Terry L. Nichols’ statements cannot be used against fellow defendant Timothy J. McVeigh, McVeigh’s lawyer said Wednesday.

However, the judge refused to suppress the statements outright, meaning they can be used against Nichols, said Stephen Jones, head of McVeigh’s defense team.

Nichols made the statements to the FBI two days after the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people.

Jones had argued that the statements were inadmissible in his client’s case because as a co-defendant Nichols could not be compelled to testify and thus couldn’t be cross-examined about them.

For their part, Nichols’ lawyers had argued that the statement should be disallowed entirely because agents who interviewed Nichols for nine hours failed to tell him an arrest warrant had been issued for him, and they continued to question him after he refused to sign a waiver of his Miranda rights. Prosecutors countered that Nichols had indicated orally that he understood his rights.

Nichols told the FBI he picked up McVeigh near the Murrah building on April 16, 1995. He also told the agents that he lent McVeigh his pickup two days later and cleaned out a storage locker for him on April 20, 1995.