Fresh Loaf

For the second year, the Georgia Senate has again passed a Republican-penned proposal to give prosecutors the ability to seek life without parole against murder suspects.

As I explained in a recent article, in many murder cases, Georgia’s DAs now must choose between seeking life with parole or the death penalty. Giving prosecutors the option of going for life without parole is likely to save millions of tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on trying to send killers to Death Row on shaky evidence. As we learned with the Brian Nichols sentence, even a no-brainer capital case can collapse at the finish line.

The sponsor of Senate Bill 13 is Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, who sees his measure as a reasonable alternative to lowering the standards for sentencing a killer to death, which is the preferred route of the House. Last year, Smith refused to let a House bill to allow the death penalty to be doled out by non-unanimous juries to be attached to his own legislation – a move that scuttled both bills.

This year, versions of both bills are back in play. We’ll be watching to see which pulls ahead.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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CL’s Scott Henry discusses how Brian Nichols’ verdict —  one that spared him a trip to death row — led some to believe that Georgia’s death penalty may be broken.

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Amount for which the Fulton sheriff’s office is being sued for sexual harassment: $8 million

Sheriff Ted Jackson

Number of weeks newly elected Sheriff Ted Jackson was in office before the harassment lawsuit was filed: 1

Number of weeks previous Sheriff Myron Freeman had been in office before the Brian Nichols courthouse killings: 9

Number of years the Fulton sheriff’s office has been under federal court order to clean up the jail: 2

Cost, in millions of dollars, of the court-ordered renovation project at the Fulton County jail: 60

Age, in years, of Fulton County jail: 20

Maximum number of prisoners allowed in Fulton jail under federal court order: 2,250

Minimum number of prisoners housed in Fulton jail before the court order: 3,000

Estimated number of pounds of jail documents shredded in 2007 after a federal judge expressed doubt over veracity of information from sheriff’s office: 15

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1. Annals of bizarro: Andisheh publicly questions Sunday Paper news editor (allegations of weirdness abound)

2. Jezebel: Four out of five “Real Housewives” are broke (oh, celebs — they’re just like us!)

3. Word: Travesty of death (Brian Nichols is spared the death penalty; Troy Davis continues to fight his death sentence)

4. BMF’s third-in-command sentenced (20 years for the Black Mafia Family’s Fleming “Ill” Daniels)

5. Southeastern Film Critics Association’s got Milk for best picture (critics group — which includes our very own Curt Holman — digs the Harvey Milk biopic)

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Troy Davis

On Dec. 9, a three-judge panel heard the most recent federal appeal of death row inmate Troy Davis, who — according to newly discovered evidence — might have been wrongfully convicted in 1991 of killing a Savannah police officer. Four days later, Brian Nichols — who was convicted last month of killing a judge, a court reporter, a deputy, and a federal agent — was spared the death penalty by a Fulton County jury.

“Our justice system should punish the guilty, free the innocent and have the wisdom to know the difference. I hope the 11th Circuit [Court] will give Davis his day in court.”

— Former FBI Director William Sessions, in an AJC op-ed.

“It’s … possible the real guilty person who shot Officer MacPhail is not being prosecuted.”

— Federal judge Rosemary Barkett, one of the three judges hearing Davis’ appeal, quoted in the AJC.

“He will do it again, and he will do it again, and again, and again, until somebody stops him, until someone puts an end to it, and that someone is you.”

— Fulton prosecutor Clint Rucker, in his three-and-a-half hour closing argument in the death penalty phase of Brian Nichols’ trial.

“I have talked to two jurors and they both say that some people showed up for jury duty with their minds already made up and never entered into a meaningful discussion of a death sentence. That means we don’t get a fair trial.”

— Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard, quoted in the AJC.

(Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections.)

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Brian Nichols, who killed four people in a 2005 shooting rampage that started inside the Fulton County courthouse, was sentenced this morning to life in prison without parole, the AJC reports.

Prosecutors failed to convince the jury that Nichols should die for his crimes. His victims were a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and a federal agent.

According to the AJC, the judge presiding over Nichols’ trial, James Bodiford, offered these somber words:

“For four innocent people to be taken off this earth in just a few hours … I believe there is a higher power and there had to be some purpose. I know a lot of people must have thought ‘If only Agent [David] Wilhelm had gotten the draw on Mr. Nichols.’“

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The jury now has been deliberating for three days on whether to send convicted courthouse killer Brian Nichols to his death.

The guy shoots a judge and court reporter dead in their own courtroom; kills a deputy en route to his next crime, a violent carjacking; and later guns down a federal agent — and it takes THREE DAYS to decide his fate?

The latest from the AJC is that the Judge Rowland Barnes’ widow is “almost numb just from waiting.”

According to the story, the jury will reconvene on Saturday if it can’t reach a decision today.

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From the AJC:

A Fulton County jury announced today that it is “hung” on whether to sentence convicted murderer Brian Nichols to death.

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford said the jury was asking for advice on how to proceed in its deliberations. Bodiford prepared to call the jury into the courtroom for a conference Thursday morning.

The jury is split 9-3. Bodiford did not inquire whether the majority favored a death sentence or life imprisonment. He said he would have the jury continue deliberating after lunch.

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Brian Nichols was found guilty of murder this afternoon.

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TROY DAVIS: Will be killed by Georgia tonight, barring a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.

BAILOUT: What at first seemed like a tourniquet is starting to look more like a feather pillow for Wall Street, and congressional leaders are pointing out that we’ve been notoriously fooled before by this administration under guise of looming disaster.

BLAME: More Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis.

STONEHENGE: British researchers determine it was a pilgrimage site for the sick.

BRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL: Is under way, with the defense portraying Nichols as lost in fantasy during his notorious 2005 killing spree, and the prosecution arguing he knew what he was doing.

GAS SHORTAGE: Ten percent of the country’s refining capacity is still down post-Ike, leading to major gasoline shortages, especially in the Southeast.

A BLEND IN NEED: The shortage here is compounded by environmental rules requiring the metro area to use a special type of gas known as “the Atlanta blend,” which includes oxygenates such as ethanol that help fuel burn more cleanly.

LARRY MUNSON: The inimitable voice of Georgia football, who has suffered from health problems in recent years, announced his immediate retirement Monday.

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AJC.com reports that, after more than 30 days spent questioning a 240-person jury pool, 12 jurors and two alternates have been picked to hear the crazy-long (and crazy-expensive) death penalty case against alleged Fulton County courthouse killer Brian Nichols.

The trial is expected to last more than three months. Not surprisingly, the AJC reports, jurors didn’t appear thrilled to be spending a quarter of 2008 in the courtroom:

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford congratulated the glum-looking group of jurors at 2 p.m. today when he told them they would be the hearing the case that is expected to last the rest of the year. They will start hearing testimony when they return Monday for opening statements.

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During a hearing today to determine what evidence will be admitted in the high-profile (and high-cost) Brian Nichols trial, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard took the stand to defend one of his former prosecutors, according to a story posted on AJC.com.

Former assistant district attorney Gayle Abramson, who’d been prosecuting Nichols on a violent rape charge when he went on a homicidal shooting rampage at the Fulton County courthouse, was accused by Nichols’ defense of “prosecutorial misconduct.” The defense pointed to claims made by a murder suspect in an unrelated case, who was caught on a wiretap accusing Abramson of using drugs in the past.

For some reason, Nichols’ attorneys are arguing that the drug allegations against Abramson render their client ineligible for the death penalty. Yeah, right.

According to the AJC.com story, Howard called the accusations a waste of time:

“I just think it is extremely reaching. I just don’t see what the connection is. … The information on that wiretap was fake; it was phony; it was fabricated, so I didn’t really give any credit to what it said.”

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BULLDOGGED: Did an Athens site for a federal research facility get left off the finalist list because of politics? It’s suspicious that a site in Mississippi that scored lower than Athens on the Department of Homeland Security’s checklist made the pool of finalists, and Athens didn’t.

ADULT SWIM: Squirty the loggerhead sea turtle makes its first foray into the ocean, and 1,000 people gather at Tybee Island to watch.

STEEP HILL: Clayton County is so exasperated with Sheriff Victor Hill that it has filed papers in federal court asking that a special monitor be appointed to run the sheriff’s department until Hill’s term expires.

SKIPPING A BEAT: The Braves are back in Atlanta for the first time since Skip Caray died. And Pete Van Wieren dreads a press box that doesn’t have Skip holding court.

JUDGMENT DAY: The former judge in the Brian Nichols trial joins the chorus of those who say the reason the trial is so costly is because Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has turned a simple, one-week trial into a tangled mess of hundreds of witnesses and a dozen crime scenes.

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HOMELESSNESS: New study quantifies homelessness in Georgia, finding that 20,000 people were homeless statewide one night in January and 75,000 went without a home at some point during the year.

NICHOLS TRIAL MOVED: To Atlanta City Court.

NOT THE LAST STRAW: The Athens Banner-Herald sees the silver lining in Gwinnett voters’ straw-poll rejection of MARTA.

IN TRANSIT: CNN reports on Americans weaning off driving and the rise of public transit; as usual, Atlanta is used as the example of the city lagging behind.

IN-THE-RED STATE: Gov. Perdue announces that the state budget is $600 million short. Maybe Atlanta and Georgia aren’t so different after all.

GOING AGAINST THE GROIN: Mike Hampton comes out of another minor league game after “tweaking” something, this time his groin, after just 29 pitches.

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JEKYLL: The first new development in three decades on the island, a Hampton Inn, breaks ground Monday.

AERO HEADS: Jacoby Development’s large-scale “aerotropolis” redevelopment of the Hapeville Ford plant could be the southside city’s big break, but commercial real-estate experts say it’s also a big risk.

REVIVAL: State gives $10,000 to proposed new Allman Brothers museum in Macon.

CEASAR MITCHELL: Running for mayor.

TRIALS OF JOB: Mayor Franklin announces she’ll cut another 165 jobs to deal with the budget shortfall.

THE LONG RUN: USA Today profiles the Braves’ baffling inability to win one-run games.

CLASSICAL GAS: Norcross gas station took part in a $1.99/gallon marketing gimmick that had a line of cars waiting 30 minutes or more to fill up.

NICHOLS TRIAL: Judge says it needs to be moved.

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TESTY: Iran test-fires more missiles overnight, although maybe not as many as it claims.

TESTES: Jesse Jackson apologizes for his bizarre comments about Barack Obama caught by a Fox News microphone he didn’t know was on.

CONSERVATION PIECE: The Georgia DNR is working on buying 1,800 acres of land between Pigeon and Lookout mountains in North Georgia.

BRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL: Starts today.

DNA EVIDENCE: Clears JonBenet Ramsey’s parents in her 1996 killing, points to “unexplained third party.”

PEOPLE: Twenty thousand of them moved to Atlanta from 2006 to 2007, putting the city’s population at more than 500,000.

OUT OF THE BAG: A mysterious spotted wildcat was found and detained in Midtown early this morning. UPDATE: It’s an ocelot serval.

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What could possibly further diminish the public’s opinion of a notorious alleged quadruple murderer?

From the AJC’s Steve Visser:

Brian Nichols doesn’t want his face broadcast the week before his upcoming trial for four murders because he’s bearded.

Nichols thinks the facial hair makes him look more sinister.

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CHINA EARTHQUAKE RELIEF: Fourteen Atlanta Chinese organizations have banded together and will hold various on-site donation drives this weekend and next. Another 5.5-magnitude aftershock hit the China quake zone today, causing landslides.

MOTHER’S DAY TORNADOES: Damage in Georgia has already reached $100 million, may exceed $125 million. The tornadoes also caused environmental damage, such as an industrial park in McIntosh County that was leveled, leaking fuel, oil and acid into the soil.

SOUTH RISING: Record black voter turnout for Obama could loosen the GOP’s decades-long stranglehold on the South.

TRIGGER MORTIS: Now that guns are the new iPod in Georgia, police are gearing up for a trigger-happier public, especially now that we don’t have to hide our guns in our glove compartments while driving anymore.

BODIFORD: Can stay on the Brian Nichols case, despite comments he made to the Marietta Daily Journal shortly after the deadly shootings.

ATLANTA TRAVEL PROFILE: Aw shucks, St. Pete Times.

LIZARD MAN: After a mystery animal chews up the bumper of someone’s car in Sumter, S.C., residents assume what anyone would — Lizard Man. They’re also willing to consider Bigfoot as a suspect, though, as a “renowned Bigfoot hunter” tells the local paper that there are more than 3,500 “Bigfoot creatures” nationwide.

SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE: Closes Indian Creek MARTA station.

BRAIN TRUST: Scientists are studying the only three known hyperthymestics, or people with superhuman memories, to learn more about how memory works, hoping to help those with failing memories.

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BUDGET CRISIS: Atlanta considers privatizing some city services to deal with the budget shortfall.

ZEBRA OWNER: Wants to press charges against pranksters, argues stunt was dangerous, unlike “taking a goat over there,” which would apparently be a fine thing to do.

CLAYTON: School board hires Thompson as corrective superintendent, board chairman and attorney quit.

BRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL: Judge Bodiford won’t step down despite defense’s discovery of a 2005 Marietta Daily Journal article in which Bodiford was quoted as saying he was friends with the judge who was killed. He’s asking another judge to rule on the issue.

STUDENT LOANS: Getting scarcer.

UNWAFFLE BEHAVIOR: Police mace, arrest Truett Cathy’s grandson after he allegedly went on a nude rampage in the bathroom of the Northside Drive Waffle House.

STRIP CLUB ARSON: Army medic who was working as a strip club’s security guard pleads guilty to arson in the burning of a competing club, Club Onyx, in January 2007.

BANKS BANK ROBBED: Man sought for robbing a bank at Banks Crossing in Banks County Thursday.

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(photo by Joeff Davis)

Don’t get mad at Durante Franklin for towing your car from the courthouse parking lot. He’s just doing his job. Franklin has been a driver with A Tow Inc. for five years and is actually a pretty friendly guy.

“We tow from city, state and federal government properties. Also private and commercial towing; if you break down and you have services through your insurance company, then we come get you and bill your insurance.”

As an occupational hazard, Franklin has gotten on-the-job threats. “Maybe ’bout four times. And I also got ’jacked at the courthouse in 2005 by Brian Nichols.”

On the being carjacked by Brian Nichols: “I was at Five Points. A guy walked around the truck with a gun telling me to get out. I said you can have the truck, just don’t shoot me. So he took off with my cell phone, radio and everything down Peachtree.”

“I went to an accident scene where a young lady was killed. Another car had flipped up and came through the windshield. But her two kids were still alive in her SUV.”

On karma: “If you’re doing wrong, it is going to come back and bite you in the butt.”

Occasionally, Franklin is offered bribes by desperate car-owners. “They’ll be like, ‘Uh, man, I give you $300 to let it down,’ and I’ll be like ‘No, you going to jail and I’m going to jail … I don’t think so.’”

On how man can achieve salvation: “First of all he’s got to get himself together with the Lord. If he don’t believe, then he needs to believe.”

On people he admires: “I like a lot of people. I love me some Tupac because he always speaks the truth.”

On what he wouldn’t do for money: “There is stuff you put guidelines on, like that show where they used to have to eat pig guts for money. It’s Fear Factor. How are you just going to eat a hog head, and they just killed it, and they say they will give you $20,000? I will pass.”

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In researching this week’s cover story, I was struck by how several independent forces came together to cause a financial crisis that has left Georgia with death penalty cases that are stalled all over the state.

A state legislator, who also happens to be an attorney, has an interesting theory no one else has brought up.

None of this would have happened — no financial crisis, no stalled death penalty cases, no controversy in the Brian Nichols trial — had the U.S. attorney taken the case. One of Nichols’ alleged victims was a U.S. Customs agent.

Had that happened, the legislator says, Nichols would have been represented by a federal public defender. He would have been tried away from the emotionally charged atmosphere of the Fulton County Courthouse, and it would have saved everyone major headaches.

But is that a realistic possibility?

A death penalty expert I talked to says the case probably wouldn’t fall under federal jurisdiction. They could possibly have prosecuted the death of the agent, but probably not the deaths inside the courthouse.

Any legal wizards out there who can address that point?

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Cobb County Superior Court Judge James Bodiford is determined to get the Brian Nichols trial back on track. Yesterday, he set a July 10 trial date for the man accused of a Fulton County Courthouse shooting spree three years ago that left a judge, a court reporter and two law enforcement officers dead.

There’s just one hitch: How will the Nichols defense team be paid?

The trial has been on hold for months because the Georgia Capital Defenders unit of the state’s public defender system is broke. The program — which handles all indigent death penalty cases in Georgia — has become the favorite whipping boy of Republican lawmakers, who continue to cut funding for indigent defense.

It’s no coincidence that the trial date comes immediately after the state’s new fiscal year starts July 1. That means a fresh infusion of cash into the program.

This week’s CL cover story — which will be online later this afternoon — delves into the issues surrounding the Nichols trial and the crisis that has stalled death penalty cases all over the state. I’ll update this afternoon with the link.

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A DELEGATE SITUATION: Michigan and Florida want to redo their Democratic primaries, and want national party to pay for them.

PERDUE: Hosts McCain fundraiser at Westin Buckhead just three days after endorsing him. McCain visits Chick-fil-A HQ in College Park this morning.

DRIVE-BY SHOOTING: In Stone Mountain; seven injured.

NICHOLS TRIAL: “Meeting of the minds” yields defense funding agreement.

CLAYTON: Parents to call for all school board members’ resignations at Monday’s meeting. Perdue pushes a bill that would allow voters in deaccredited school districts to vote out board members via referendum. BoE suspends search for permanent superintendent, will hire “corrective” interim chief within weeks.

RICHT GETS RICHER: UGA coach gets $800,000 raise, still only fifth-highest paid coach in the SEC.

LOUSY SMARCH WEATHER: Temperatures drop, snow possible Saturday in North Georgia.

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According to InsiderAdvantage, House Speaker Glenn Richardson is so hoppin’ mad over the spiraling costs of Brian Nichols’ legal defense that he plans to launch an investigation.

During a fundraiser at the Cobb Energy Center, Richardson announced to the crowd of something over 200 people that he’s appointed a special committee to look into the costs of the Nichols trial and the dollars that have been poured into it. It will be chaired by a trusted lieutenant, House Whip Barry Fleming.

Not a huge surprise there. GOP leaders have had their knickers in a wad over Nichols for weeks, including Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, as we blogged earlier.

In an update, IA scribe Dick Pettys writes that the speaker confirmed a rumor that had been circling within the ranks: that the committee would even consider impeachment proceedings against Fulton County Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who has ordered the state public defender’s office to pony up more money for Nichols’ defense team.

Certainly, he picked the right man for the job in Barry “Combover” Fleming, a civil litigator who spends much of his time defending insurance companies from workers’ comp claims and has little use for criminal due process — especially when it comes to death-penalty cases. Last session, he floated a bill to allow convicted murderers to be executed even if three jury members disagreed.

Of interest is Peach Pundit’s refreshingly clear-eyed and well-informed take on the situation, which argues that the current mess is as much prosecutors’ fault as it is that of the judge or defense attorneys.

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It would seem that no longer being responsible for leading the state Senate has been a liberating experience for Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, who recently has been free in sharing his unsolicited opinions on the issues of the day. Last week, EJ ruffled feathers with his musings that maybe Grady Memorial Hospital should curl up and die.
This morning, he released a statement criticizing a Wednesday ruling by Fulton Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller that the government should dig deeper between the couch cushions to find the money to give accused courthouse shooter Brian Nichols a fair trial:

“Taxpayers should not be required to pay millions of dollars to defend a guy who killed a judge, a court reporter, and two law enforcement officers. Let’s be honest. This isn’t about justice. This is a backdoor attempt to end the death penalty by bankrupting the public defenders budget. Judge Fuller has found the taxpayers guilty without a trial.”

I have to admit some ambivalence on this one. Not about Johnson’s ridiculous claim that the judge is trying to kill Georgia’s death penalty (although Bill Shipp suspects that may the goal of the defense team). But the defense effort for Nichols has always seemed a little like preparations for a show trial whose purpose is not to determine guilt but to showcase the glorious impartiality of American jurisprudence.

Would it really be so terrible if Nichols got justice at a Costco price?

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