Oklahoma case confirms: Life spared, but never free

Detroit Free Press: It was mildly surprising and no doubt vexing to some of the victims' families that an Oklahoma jury refused to sentence Michigan native Terry Nichols to death for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
The relatives will have to settle for accountability and the knowledge that Nichols, who will be sentenced in August, will never again draw breath as a free man. He already is serving a life sentence for his federal court conviction in the bombing.
Nichols' partner in terror, Timothy McVeigh, who detonated the truck bomb that killed 168 people, was executed in 2001.
But the federal and state juries, while agreeing that Nichols was part of the terrible bombing plot and surely could have done something to stop McVeigh, seem swayed by the fact that he was miles away, in Kansas, when McVeigh acted. The bombing, the worst act of terror on American soil until the 9/11 events, killed 168 people, 19 of them children in a day care center.
Silence
Nichols, who met McVeigh in the Army, has remained silent in his own defense. In a book published before his death, McVeigh tried to minimize Nichols' role, but evidence showed that while he may not have known exactly what McVeigh was going to do, Nichols helped assemble the truck bomb and stash a getaway car in Oklahoma City.
The state of Oklahoma brought its case against him with execution in mind, arguing for the death penalty as ultimate justice for still-grieving families. Two juries have now said otherwise. There's no small irony in the fact that the government system for which Nichols shared McVeigh's contempt produced a verdict that spared his life.