McAlester, Okla. ? Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols was again spared the death penalty Friday when jurors who convicted him of 161 murder counts deadlocked over his sentence, denying state prosecutors the execution that was the main reason for bringing the case.

The hung jury denies prosecutors the death sentence they first demanded nearly a decade ago while the bodies were still being pulled from the twisted ruins of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Federal prosecutors sought the death penalty for Nichols six years ago, but had to settle for life in prison when another jury deadlocked.

State jurors announced they could not reach a verdict after deliberating for about 19 1/2 hours over three days. Nichols will be sentenced by Judge Steven Taylor, who is required by law to sentence Nichols to life in prison.

Taylor asked jury foreman Peter Mills if more deliberations could bring about a decision. Mills said that would not help.

“Three days you have worked on this,” Taylor told the jury. “And sometimes this is how cases end. The law anticipates that juries may not reach unanimous conclusions.”

Taylor said Nichols had a fair trial.

“No one should feel that they have let anybody down,” Taylor said. “This case was not about winning or losing. This case is about justice.”

The deadlock was a blow to state prosecutors and victims’ family members who said death was the appropriate punishment for the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

“I think he should die, but that’s not my decision,” said Beverly Rankin, who was injured in the bombing. “Hopefully, he’ll never step foot out free in his lifetime.

State prosecutors brought the case, which has cost $3.9 million in defense attorneys’ fees alone, after Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without parole following a federal conviction for the deaths of eight federal agents in the bombing, which killed 168 people.

John and Gloria Taylor pause outside the Pittsburg County Courthouse in McAlester, Okla., after a jury announced it could not reach a verdict on Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' punishment on state murder convictions. Gloria Taylor clutches a picture of her daughter, who died in the bombing.

The state convictions were for the 160 other victims of the bombing, and one fetus whose mother died in the blast.

Oklahoma County Dist. Atty. Wes Lane, who made the decision to pursue the state case against Nichols, denied that the prosecution was conducted solely for the purpose of getting a death penalty verdict. He said it was important that Nichols be convicted for all of those who died in the bombing, and that the state counts serve as an insurance policy if the federal counts are overturned.

“This case has always been about 161 men, women and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers,” he said. “They’ve now had their day in court.”

Defense attorney Brian Hermanson said now was the time to think of those harmed by the bombing.

“At this time we should remember the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, their losses.” Hermanson said. He said Nichols prayed that “all people can recover from the hate and fear” created by the bombing.

The jury, which convicted Nichols on May 26, began deliberating in the trial’s sentencing phase Wednesday, after a week of emotional testimony.

Taylor set the sentencing for Aug. 9.

The April 19, 1995, bombing killed 168 people and wounded 500. Timothy McVeigh, Nichols’ former Army buddy and the mastermind of the bombing, was convicted of federal charges and executed in 2001 for what was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil at the time.

Prosecutors said the blast was a twisted attempt to avenge the deaths of about 80 people who died in the government siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier.

Nichols was home in Herington, Kan., the day of the bombing. But prosecutors presented a mountain of circumstantial evidence that Nichols and McVeigh worked side-by-side to carry out the attack. They said Nichols bought the fertilizer, stole detonation cord, blasting caps and other materials, and helped finance the plot by robbing a gun dealer.

Defense attorneys maintained that Nichols was the fall guy for a shadowy conspiracy far wider than the government has acknowledged.

All 12 jurors needed to agree to a death sentence for Nichols to be condemned. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that only a jury — not a judge — can impose a death sentence on a murder defendant.

Bud Welch, who lost a daughter in the bombing but opposed the death penalty for Nichols, said in a telephone interview that the state trial was a waste of money.

“It’s just a shame that we’ve paid millions of dollars and spent a tremendous amount of emotions and revictimized family members to go through this process,” Welch said.