Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Supreme Court Asks Government to Reply to Nichols Petition

Aired June 04, 2001 - 10:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, we have more news right now on the developments in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Moments ago you were talking to our Bob Franken in Washington about the Timothy McVeigh angle. Now we're hearing there's maybe some movement now on the Terry Nichols portion of that particular case. Let's go now to our Jeanne Meserve, who's standing by in Washington -- good morning, Jeanne. What is it that you've learned?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

You may recall that Terry Nichols is serving life in prison for his involvement in the Oklahoma City case. His lawyers had filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a petition for a rehearing of his case. Today we are told that the Supreme Court has asked the acting solicitor general of the United States to file a response to that motion by Nichols' lawyers.

I am told that this does not move the case forward, but once again, they are asking the acting solicitor general to file its response to the request from Nichols' attorneys that his case be reheard. Nichols' lawyers asking for this in light of the thousands of pages of documents which came to light only recently after he had been tried and sentenced in this case.

Let me tell you, additionally, the Supreme Court is issuing five different decisions today. We are now reading those, digesting those. As soon as we've got the particulars we'll get back to you with those decisions. Back to you in Atlanta.

HARRIS: All right, great. Thanks, Jeanne. We'll see you in a little bit on that then.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com