The lawyer for Terry Nichols, who was convicted in 1998 as a co-conspirator of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said today he had petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial for his client.
The petition for a rehearing was filed with the Supreme Court late yesterday, shortly before a midnight deadline, lawyer Mr Michael Tigar said.
Mr Tigar said he already had access to the 3,100 documents of evidence released by the FBI to the defense teams of Nichols and McVeigh, and this had been influential in his client's decision to seek a new hearing.
"There would have been no point in asking for a new hearing if we didn't have new information to share," he said.
US Attorney General Mr John Ashcroft announced yesterday he was postponing the execution of McVeigh, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, in order to give McVeigh's lawyers an opportunity to review the newly-discovered evidence.
AFP