Terry Nichols avoided a death sentence - again - when...

Terry Nichols avoided a death sentence - again - when the 12 jurors at his state trial deadlocked Friday night over his punishment for the Oklahoma City bombing. Nichols, 49, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge Steven Taylor set formal sentencing for Aug. 9. The judge can impose life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jurors on May 26 quickly found Nichols guilty of a role in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. But they spent almost 20 hours over three days debating his punishment without agreement. Jurors had "highly held beliefs," Peter E. Mills, the jury foreman, wrote the judge. The deadlock was announced about 7:30 p.m. Prosecutors said Nichols bought 2 tons of fertilizer from a Kansas farm store and helped buy three barrels of racing fuel at a Texas track. Prosecutors said Nichols helped McVeigh mix the ingredients in the back of a rented Ryder truck by a Kansas lake the day before the bombing. They also said he helped McVeigh steal blasting caps from a Kansas rock quarry. Prosecutors said the blast was revenge for the deaths of about 80 people who died in the government siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, exactly 2 years earlier. Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind of the bombing, was convicted of federal charges and executed on June 11, 2001. Nichols in his federal case was sentenced by a judge to life in prison without the possibility of release after his federal jurors deadlocked. Those jurors deliberated 13 hours over two days in January 1998. His state trial, which began March 1, focused on the 160 other casualties as well as the loss of an unborn girl. Jurors at the state trial found Nichols guilty May 26 on all the state counts. Prosecutors believe Nichols was spared the death penalty because of "sympathy issues" among some jurors, including his religious conversion since he was arrested three days after the bombing. Nichols was in Herington, Kan., where he was living, when the bomb exploded. Nichols claims to have repudiated his anti-government views since the explosion.