Justice on Hold in Quadruple Murder Trial
Courts, public frustrated over Nichols case, stalled by lack of funds.
Jan. 7, 2008— -- The case stunned the nation: A man on trial for rape at the Fulton County Courthouse overpowered a sheriff's deputy, took her gun and allegedly went on a killing rampage.
He allegedly shot the trial judge, the court reporter, a second deputy and, later that night, a federal agent. Then, in a made-for-TV-movie twist, he surrendered after allegedly holding a young woman hostage for several hours in her suburban Atlanta apartment.
It seemed an open-and-shut case. The suspect, Brian Nichols, was seen by witnesses throughout the ordeal, and his image was captured on security cameras at a nearby parking lot. The city watched his surrender live on TV.
Yet, nearly three years after the March 11, 2005, shootings, Nichols has not been tried. He faces the death penalty if convicted of capital murder, and that aspect has caused his trial to be delayed five times. The state says that after spending $1.5 million on the indigent Nichols' defense, there is no money left to defend him from a fund for indigents provided by the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.
As a result, Nichols is now at the center of a looming fight between Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who is overseeing his murder trial, and the Georgia Legislature over the handling of Nichols' indigent defense money. Last week, the judge declined to turn over expense records to a legislative panel formed to investigate his handling of the case. It's a battle that could lead to a state constitutional crisis.
On Friday came the latest development in the Nichols saga. The Associated Press, citing law enforcement documents it obtained, reported that Nichols is suspected of plotting another sensational escape, this one with the help of his pen-pal girlfriend, a paralegal who once worked on his defense team, and two sheriff's deputies.
The delays in the Nichols case baffle those who have heard witnesses describe the killings, who have seen videotape of the suspect fleeing or who saw him captured.
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