Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols sues over his diet
BY NOLAN CLAY
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Published: March 28, 2009
Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols is complaining about his diet again — this time in a handwritten federal lawsuit seeking more than $2 million.
He claims the food he gets in federal prison in Colorado violates his religious rights. He also claims the "indifference” of prison officials to his medical needs is cruel and unusual punishment. Nichols complained that he "is compelled to consume daily those unhealthy dead and refined foods that are abhorrent to plaintiff’s sincerely held religious beliefs causing him physical, mental and spiritual torment, and to sin against God.” He wrote that he sincerely believes that God created mankind to consume unrefined whole foods. He wrote that he is forced to sin against God by eating refined foods that destroy "His holy temple ... my body.” He is demanding 100 percent whole-grain foods, more fresh raw vegetables and fresh fruit, a wheat bran supplement, and digestive bacteria and enzymes. He wrote that his religious beliefs and requests "are not absurd, unorthodox, nor costly.” He wrote he has been dealing with chronic constipation, bleeding and hemorrhoids for more than 30 years. His complaints about food in the past have angered victims of the 1995 attack who have said he does not deserve special treatment. In 1996, before his federal trial, he refused to stand four times for inmate counts to protest that he wasn’t getting whole-wheat bread. In 2001, before his state trial, he fasted for almost six days to protest his food at the jail. His 39-page lawsuit was filed in federal court in Denver March 16. He also complained that because of his conviction for the bombing, prison employees have discriminated against him. He wrote that he has been stereotyped by the Bureau of Prisons, the court and the media as being a terrorist. "Mr. Nichols is not a terrorist,” he wrote. Since his trials, Nichols has admitted to the FBI, his family, a U.S. congressman and others that he helped bomber Tim McVeigh gather components for the fertilizer bomb and that he helped build the bomb in the back of a rented truck.
Related Topics:
Culture and Lifestyle, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Prisons, Religion, Diet and Nutrition, Healthy Eating
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And, by the way, what does whether or not one attended his trial have to do with anything? Are you saying that only those who were present are entitled to an opinion on this topic? To quote you in your last post....."After all-we are Americans." Well, stinky,(may I call you stinky?) in your civics/history class, did you ever hear of something called freedom of speech? :-)
If he would like a "special diet" I have the perfect one for him:
125 grains (whole grains I believe) of copper jacket hollow point ammunition, in .357 magnum.
By mouth as needed for whatever ails you.