FW: CNN - Jury deadlocked on penalty for Atlanta courthouse shooter

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CNN - Jury deadlocked on penalty for Atlanta courthouse shooter

Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 2:43:34

From: nandtbearden@... <nandtbearden@...>

nandtbearden@... <nandtbearden@...>

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Sent from nandtbearden@...'s mobile device from http://www.cnn.com. Jury

deadlocked on penalty for Atlanta courthouse shooter Jurors in the Nichols

trial were ordered Thursday to resume deliberating his punishment, despite their

assertion earlier in the day that they were unable to reach a unanimous

agreement. Superior Court Judge Bodiford ordered the deliberations to

continue Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty for

Nichols, 36, who was convicted of killing a judge and a court reporter in the

Fulton County Courthouse, where he was being tried for rape. He also was

convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy outside the courthouse and a federal

agent in northern Atlanta. He was taken into custody 26 hours after his escape,

in neighboring Gwinnett County, where he held a woman hostage in her apartment.

If after further deliberations, the jury is still split, the judge may poll the

jury again. If seven or more

jurors are in favor of the death penalty or a life sentence without parole, the

judge can sentence Nichols to life without parole. If the majority are in favor

of a life sentence with the possibility of parole, the judge can pass only that

sentence. Prosecutor Clint Rucker called Monday for Nichols to be sentenced to

death on the 54 counts. " If you give him life and not death, especially given

everything he's done, he will have nothing to lose and everything to gain,

because he is not finished yet, " Rucker told the jury. " He did it once, and he

will do it again. He is conniving, he is cold-blooded, he is vicious, and he is

remorseless, and he is extremely, extremely dangerous. " The defense said

Nichols, who confessed to the killings, suffered from a mental disorder. During

the penalty phase of Nichols' trial, jurors heard emotional testimony from

relatives of the shooting victims. They also heard about Nichols' middle-class

childhood in Baltimore,

land, his relationship with the woman who accused him of raping her and his

thwarted attempts to escape from jail as he awaited trial. In the nearly two

years since the jurors were called to hear the case, more than 1,000 pieces of

evidence have been submitted, and more than 140 witnesses have testified.