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Supreme Court rejects appeal from Terry Nichols

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday rejected an attempt by Terry Nichols to block a state trial for the Oklahoma City bombing.

The high court without comment turned down Nichols' effort to block a trial which, if he's convicted, could carry a death sentence. Nichols was convicted in a federal trial for his role in the 1995 bombing.

Nichols has already been convicted on federal charges for his role in the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people. He was given a life sentence for conspiracy and manslaughter.

At issue now is the state's effort to try Nichols on more charges.

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In other action Monday, the high court refused to hear an appeal by a Minnesota school teacher who claims his freedoms of speech and religion were violated when he was reassigned after stating misgivings over teaching evolution as required by the curriculum.

Rodney LeVake, a Christian who says he believes in the biblical version of creation, was reassigned away from his biology class in Faribault, Minnesota The school district requires instruction in evolution. LeVake had expressed doubts about the Darwinian-based theory, according to court documents.

The Supreme Court action followed similar dismissals of the case by lower courts.

Nichols sought double jeopardy ruling

Nichols had asked the Supreme Court to stop plans for the Oklahoma trial, arguing it amounted to double jeopardy because state and federal officials had joined forces to help convict Nichols in his 1997 trial.

The refusal to intervene is the latest in a string of Supreme Court losses for Nichols, who was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the attack on the Oklahoma City federal office building. Timothy McVeigh, the bombing's mastermind, was executed in June.

Justices refused in October to consider arguments that the FBI's belated release of investigation documents to Nichols' attorneys affected his federal trial. And last spring Nichols lost an appeal of his conviction.

Those cases pit Nichols against the federal government, which won convictions but not the death penalty. The latest case involves the state's plans to try him on 160 counts of first-degree murder and other charges.

The April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 and injured more than 500, was at the time the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil.