Oklahoma City Bombing Hearing

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a rental truck filled with explosives outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, the second largest terrorist attack in the U.S. to date. Dr. Steven Penrod, an expert in eyewitness behavior, testified at the change of venue hearing on February 1, 1996, attended by both McVeigh and his co-conspirator, Terry Nichols. On February 20, 1996, Judge Richard Matsch ordered that the trial be moved from the state of Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado. Matsch is a Denver federal judge who succeeded Oklahoma City District Judge Wayne Alley, whose chambers and courtroom had been destroyed by the bombing. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. Nichols is serving consecutive life sentences at the federal prison in Florence, Colorado.