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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave the Department of Justice 30 days to respond to convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' request for a new trial.

Nichols was convicted on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that which killed 168 people and wounded hundreds more. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He was tried separately from his Army buddy Timothy McVeigh, who was sentenced to die for carrying out the bombing.

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Nichols' filed a motion asking for a new trial last month after the FBI turned over to McVeigh's attorneys more than 4,100 pages of previously undisclosed documents.

The documents were discovered just days before McVeigh's scheduled May 16 execution.

U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft delayed the execution until June 11 and McVeigh's attorneys have filed a request for a stay in federal court, to give them more time to review the documents.

Ashcroft said he would "oppose vigorously" any effort to delay the execution, saying there was nothing in the 4,100 pages of documents that casts doubt on McVeigh's guilt.

Nichols attorney Michael Tigar said many of the documents dealt with the mysterious "John Doe No. 2" who one witness said was with McVeigh when he rented the truck used to carry the bomb.

This possible accomplice was never found or identified, although McVeigh's trial attorneys based his defense on the possibility of a broader conspiracy behind the bombing.

Nichols was turned down in an earlier appeal for a new trial by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado, and the U.S. Supreme Court.