DENVER, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Terry Nichols, the Oklahoma City bombing conspirator, will not be getting a special prison diet of raw food.
U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello, sitting in Denver, last week dismissed Nichols' claims that officials at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., were violating his constitutional rights, The Oklahoman reported.
Nichols, 55, had asserted he needed a diet of raw vegetables, fruit and whole grains, claiming a medical condition that requires it. He also contends his Christian belief "is that God created our foods to be consumed in their whole unrefined state." By not being provided this diet, Nichols said, his constitutional rights were being violated.
Arguello disagreed, ruling Nichols hadn't proved his diet qualified as "cruel and unusual punishment," and added there wasn't any proof the prison diet violated his religious beliefs.
Nichols says he has gone on three hunger strikes this year to compel prison officials to meet his medical and religious needs. He says he lost 35 pounds in the last hunger strike, dropping to 125 pounds.
Nichols is serving life without parole for the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City in which 168 people died. One co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, was executed in 2001 and another, Michael Fortier, was released from prison in 2006 and was placed in a witness protection program.
