Prosecutors say Atlanta shooter should be put to death. Prosecutors in the Brian Nichols case say the courthouse gunman who killed four people during an escape attempt should be put to death.  “I want you to honestly consider imposing a sentence of death,” prosecutor Kellie Hill told jurors on Wednesday.  Nichols was convicted last week of murder for his 2005 shooting rampage, which left a judge, a sheriff’s deputy and two others dead in the wake of his escape attempt. Prosecutors said even a life sentence would leave the community at risk. Nichols’ attorneys had argued that he was innocent by reason of insanity and that mental illness had led the Atlanta man, who attempted to escape from custody as he awaited a re-trial on rape charges, to go off. But Hill described Nichols as a “conniving, vicious, remorseless and extremely, extremely dangerous person.”  His attorneys asked jurors to look into his background to see if he really deserved to be executed.  Officials say the sentencing phase could last until Thanksgiving.

Death penalty phase begins for Brian Nichols. An Atlanta judge is to begin to weigh arguments this week to determine whether Brian Nichols will be put to death. The Atlanta courthouse gunman was found guilty on Friday of killing four people in a shooting spree that began at a downtown Atlanta courthouse. Nichols, 36, was found guilty Friday in the fatal shootings of a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and a federal agent in the 2005 mêlée. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming he was gripped by a delusional compulsion that he was a slave rebelling against authority. But a jury soundly rejected his claims, finding him guilty of all 54 counts against him, including murder and aggravated assault.

Jury still out in Atlanta courthouse shooting case. Jurors in the Brian Nichols murder trial will resume deliberations today after going home Thursday without a verdict. Thursday was their first full day of deliberations in a trial that has lasted 32 days. They are considering four killings that Nichols confessed to committing on March 11, 2005. Attorneys wrapped up the case Wednesday with closing arguments. The 12-person jury – six Black females, two White females, two Black males, one White male, and one Asian male – listened to more than 90 witnesses and saw more than 900 pieces of evidence introduced in the more than six weeks of trial, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nichols allegedly escaped from a holding cell in 2005 and shot and killed Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and a court reporter, Julie Ann Brandau, in Barnes’ courtroom, where he was to stand trial for rape later that morning. He then allegedly shot and killed Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Sgt, Hoyt Teasley on the street outside the courthouse, and, while on the run, allegedly shot and killed U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm at Wilhelm’s Buckhead home.

The defense for the Atlanta courthouse shooter rested.

Before resting their case Monday, defense attorneys for Brian Nichols did not call him to the witness stand to convince jurors he was not in his right mind when he went on a shooting spree last year that resulted in the death of a judge and several others. His mother testified for two days about what she described as signs that her son had become mentally unbalanced from the spring of 2004 to March 11, 2005, when he went on a rampage at the Fulton County Courthouse where he was on trial for rape. Lead prosecuting attorney Kellie Hill told Superior Court Judge James Bodiford that the state would spend three days calling witnesses to rebut a psychologist’s claim that Nichols suffers from a delusional disorder that made him think he was leading a “slave rebellion” against the justice system. The jury is expected to start deliberating next week after about six weeks of trial.

Accused courthouse shooter’s letters describes escape plan.

He had planned to escape, hold up in a hotel or condo in Atlanta, Charlotte or Florida and laugh at police searching in the wrong place for him, Brian Nichols, the defendant in the Atlanta courthouse shooting, wrote in letters revealed in court on Monday. Prosecutors said Nichols wrote to a Connecticut woman, Lisa Meneguzzo, professing love for her as he detailed how she could help him escape from the Fulton County Jail in 2006, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The two handwritten letters were read to the jury over the objection of Nichols’ defense team as prosecutors used Nichols’ own words to show he is a methodical and ruthless killer. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for the deaths of four people after he allegedly beat a deputy in a holding cell and escaped from the Fulton County Courthouse on March 11, 2005. The prosecution has sought in recent days to wrap up its case after 16 days and more than 70 witnesses. They’ve played a videotape of Nichols’ three-hour-long confession; read writings he left behind in a jail holding cell; and played an audiotape of a phone call Nichols made from jail to his father in which Nichols said: “I could have saved them some time and money and told them there was nothing wrong … with me.” Meneguzzo began writing Nichols after his case made national headlines. A senior investigator for the Fulton County district attorney’s office, G.G. Carawan, testified authorities were alerted to Meneguzzo after they discovered a cell phone in Nichols’ cell in March 2007 and checked the phone records. Prosecutors said Nichols and Meneguzzo wrote 58 letters to each other, only two of which were read by GBI forensics documents expert Brian McVicker. In the first, which starts “Hey Lisa,” Nichols tells Meneguzzo he loves her and looks forward to the day they can have a romantic, candlelit interlude with champagne, strawberries, a bubble bath and chocolate.