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- DENVER (Reuters) - If a controversial former FBI chemist had been allowed
to testify at the Oklahoma City bombing trial he would have disputed government
witnesses on the cause of the blast, according to a court document unsealed
Thursday.
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- A judge unsealed the document so defense
attorneys for Terry Nichols can use it to appeal his life sentence for
conspiracy to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in 1995. The truck
bomb killed 168 people.
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- U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch did
not allow the chemist, Frederic Whitehurst, to testify at Nichols' trial.
But if Whitehurst had testified he would have ``rebut(ed) the ultimate
conclusions (of two major government witnesses) that the explosion was
caused by an ammonium-nitrate based bomb,'' Nichols' lawyer Michael Tigar
said in the previously sealed document. A Justice Department spokeswoman
told Reuters the decision not to allow Whitehurst to testify was made by
a neutral judge after reviewing his proposed testimony.
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- Before the trial began Whitehurst had
alleged improprieties at the laboratory, which led to an internal investigation.
The probe concluded there were serious deficiencies in the lab. Whitehurst
has since resigned and no longer works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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- Tigar also submitted to the judge a statement,
which was also unsealed on Thursday, from Whitehurst's attorney claiming
that the chief prosecutor in the bombing case and a top FBI official threatened
Whitehurst with ``future adverse administrative action'' when he cooperated
with the Nichols defense team. The Justice Department spokeswoman said
she could not comment on the specifics of that document because she had
not seen it.
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- ^REUTERS@
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