Defense attorneys have said pretrial publicity about the bombing that killed 168 people and Nichols' 1997 conviction on federal charges made it nearly impossible to find jurors who could be fair and impartial anywhere in Oklahoma.
They predicted it could take weeks to seat a jury to hear the case.
However, Judge Steven Taylor predicted before the start of jury selection that the process would take a mere five to seven days.
And by week's end, 42 prospective jurors had emerged who said they were impartial and also would be able to give Nichols the death penalty if he were convicted.
Prosecutors wrapped up their examination of the panel after just a few hours of questioning, and Nichols' lawyers will get to question the panel when jury selection resumes today.
At the current pace, a 12-member jury, with six alternates, could be chosen and seated by Wednesday, said Irven Box, an Oklahoma City attorney and legal analyst at Nichols' state and federal trials.
''I think it's moving a lot faster than I ever anticipated and faster than most observers thought,'' Box said. ''It has a lot to do with Judge Taylor. He's got a really good method.''
Taylor's efficiency is the result of 20 years on the state bench and an understanding of the complex legal issues in Nichols' case.
While he permits prosecutors and defense attorneys to ask questions of the potential jurors, he holds them to legal guidelines that allow them only to supplement his own questions.
''He has total control of his courtroom. What he is doing is a great way to select a jury,'' Box said.
It took an entire month to find a jury for Nichols' federal trial in Denver.
In private, individual sessions, Taylor questioned some 120 prospective jurors about how much they knew about Nichols' case, how the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had affected them, and whether they had formed an opinion about Nichols' guilt.
Questioning was conducted in private to encourage candor and prevent their answers from influencing others.
In a separate line of one-on-one questioning, Taylor asked if prospective jurors could consider all three possible penalties in the case: death by lethal injection, life in prison without parole and life with the possibility of parole.
Nichols is already serving a life prison sentence for his conviction on federal charges of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers in the bombing. The state charges are for the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus.
Co-conspirator Timothy McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges and sentenced to death. He was executed in June 2001.
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