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EVIDENCE INADMISSIBLE for the children, is the memorial to those killed in
the Oklahoma City bombing. The Survivor Tree, an
Judge Richard P. Matsch eventually ruled that the American elm that somehow withstood the explosion,
evidence relating to Mahon, Strassmeir, Elohim City, overlooks the scene.
and Howe was “not sufficiently relevant to be admis-
sible,” thus eliminating the basis of Jones’s wider See also APRIL 19; COVENANT, THE SWORD, AND THE ARM OF
conspiracy argument. (Jones had abandoned the THE LORD; TIMOTHY MCVEIGH; TERRY LYNN NICHOLS;
Philippines-based conspiracy argument when his main RICHARD WAYNE SNELL; WACO; WORLD TRADE CENTER
informant changed details of his story.) The defense BOMBING (1993); RAMZI AHMED YOUSEF
team then focused on discrediting the Fortiers’ testi-
mony and revealing the holes in the FBI investigation,
including an unidentified and unaccounted-for severed Further Reading
leg found in the rubble, which Jones asserted was that Hamm, Mark S. Apocalypse in Oklahoma: Waco and Ruby
of the “real” bomber, as well as suggestions that the Ridge Revenged. Boston: Northeaster University Press,
FBI’s forensic methods were insufficiently rigorous. 1997.
On June 13, 1997, McVeigh was sentenced to death Hoffman, David. The Oklahoma City Bombing and the
by lethal injection. After McVeigh’s well-publicized Politics of Terror. Venice, CA: Feral House, 1998.
Jones, Stephen. Others Unknown: The Oklahoma City
complaints about Jones’s competency, in August,
Bombing Case and Conspiracy. New York: Public
Jones stepped down as the lawyer for the appeals
Affairs, 1998.
process. McVeigh would eventually decline to move
Michel, Lou, and Dan Herbeck. American Terrorist:
forward with his appeals, and he was sent to a prison
Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing.
in Terre Haute, Indiana, to await execution. New York: Regan Books, 2001.
Oklahoma City National Memorial. www.oklahomacity
nationalmemorial.org.
NICHOLS ON TRIAL Serrano, Richard A. One of Ours: Timothy McVeigh and the
Oklahoma City Bombing. New York: Norton, 1998.
Terry Lynn Nichols went on trial in November 1997.
Nichols faced the same charges as McVeigh, and
much of the same evidence and testimony was used in
his trial. However, because Nichols was at home in OMAGH BOMBING
Kansas when the bombing occurred, and because he
lacked the motive that the prosecution had established
for McVeigh, Nichols was found guilty on only one One of the deadliest single bombings during the
charge of conspiracy and on eight charges of involun- 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, the 1998
tary manslaughter. In April 1998, Nichols rejected an bombing in the village of Omagh, County Tyrone,
offer of leniency in exchange for more information Northern Ireland, killed 29 people and seriously
about the bombing because he could still be prose- threatened the peace process.
cuted by the state of Oklahoma for murder. Since the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been
On December 31, 1998, after a year and a half of involved in a civil conflict between members of its
investigation, a grand jury discounted all theories pre- majority—Protestant community, who wish Northern
sented by McVeigh’s original defense team, including Ireland to remain a part of Great Britain, and its
the existence of John Doe No. 2, wider foreign involve- minority—Roman Catholic community, who wish the
ment, and speculation that the federal government had province to become a part of the Republic of Ireland.
prior warning about the bombing and chose not to act. Late in 1997, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and
Following McVeigh’s execution on June 11, 2001, the various Protestant paramilitary groups declared a
only hope for more answers about the Oklahoma City cease-fire. On April 10, 1998, delegates representing
bombing lies in a possible state trial of Terry Lynn the major parties to the conflict signed the Good
Nichols. Friday Accords, a document laying out the necessary
Today, a reflecting pool surrounded by 168 chairs, steps to peace and the order in which they should
149 for each of the adult victims and 19 smaller chairs be taken.