OKLAHOMA CITY ? When Terry Nichols enters a plea to 162 state murder charges for the Oklahoma City bombing, his attorneys will prepare the legal argument they say is the heart of the case — whether Nichols can get a fair trial in Oklahoma.

Nichols, already serving a life prison sentence on federal bombing convictions, is scheduled to be arraigned today on state first-degree murder charges that could bring the death penalty.

Nichols will enter his plea to the trial judge, District Judge Steven Taylor of McAlester, who may set a trial date and schedule hearings on defense motions to dismiss the case.

Since Nichols was brought to Oklahoma in January 2000, his attorneys have said publicity about the bombing and Nichols’ federal conviction made it impossible for him to get a fair trial.

The publicity has stripped Nichols of his constitutional right to a presumption of innocence on the state charges, according to defense attorney Brian Hermanson, who has asked judges “to shut this case down” and dismiss the charges.

State prosecutors have said the issue was premature because Nichols had not been ordered to stand trial for his role in the bombing.

Nichols was bound over for trial last week after a preliminary hearing where prosecutors linked him to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.

Nichols, 48, was previously convicted on federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers killed in the blast.

The state charges involve victims who were not part of the federal case as well as two fetuses whose mothers died in the bombing.

Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind of the bombing, was executed two years ago for federal murder convictions.

The federal bombing trials were moved to Denver after U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch ruled that McVeigh and Nichols had been “demonized” by intense media coverage in Oklahoma.

Prosecutors called the bombing a twisted bid at revenge against the government for the deadly siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.

They said Nichols and McVeigh prepared the 4,000-pound fuel oil-and-fertilizer bomb and that Nichols participated in robberies and burglaries to raise money and obtain equipment for the plot.