, on April 19 , 1995 , was , at the time , the most significant act of terrorism that had ever taken place in the United States . actConflict.Attack.Unspecifiedagencies , led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) , immediately began an extensive investigation to identify and prosecute the culprits . The investigation , known as investigationCognitive.Research.Unspecified, was run by a Task Force that investigationCognitive.Research.Unspecifiedprimarily of FBI investigators and support personnel and Department of Justice prosecutors . Within a few months , three individuals - Timothy McVeigh , Terry Nichols , and Michael Fortier - were indicted for crimes relating to the bombing . McVeigh and Nichols were convicted indictedJustice.ChargeIndict.Unspecifiedtrials , and Fortier pled guilty as part of a plea convictedJustice.Convict.Unspecifiedwith the government . McVeigh , guiltyJustice.Convict.Unspecifiedhad devised the plot to bomb the Murrah Building and had planted the bomb , was sentenced to bombConflict.Attack.DetonateExplode. On May 8 , 2001 , one week before sentencedJustice.Sentence.Unspecified' s scheduled execution date , the Department of Justice and the FBI revealed to McVeigh ' s and Nichols ' attorneys that over 700 investigative revealedJustice.InvestigateCrime.Unspecifiedhad not been disclosed to the defendants before their trials . The government acknowledged that it had violated a discovery order in the case , and the Attorney General stayed McVeigh ' discoveryJustice.InvestigateCrime.Unspecifiedexecution for one month in order to resolve the legal issues arising from the belated disclosure . Following the public revelation of the problem , and after finding and releasing more than 300 additional OKBOMB documents to the defense , findingJustice.InvestigateCrime.UnspecifiedFBI came under severe criticism for its handling of the OKBOMB documents . "
Here is a look at some of the critical pieces of evidence presented during the trial . Taken as a whole , the evidence suggests that the plan to bombConflict.Attack.DetonateExplodethe Boston Marathon took shape over three months .