Judge sentences Atlanta courthouse shooter to life without parole
A judge has sentenced the man who killed four people in a brazen courthouse escape to life in prison and hundreds of years on more than fifty charges. Superior Court Judge James Bodiford was required by law to sentence Brian Nichols to life in prison with or without chance of parole after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a death sentence.
Associated Press Writer
Published: December 13, 2008
ATLANTA (AP) - A judge has sentenced the man who killed four people in a brazen courthouse escape to life in prison and hundreds of years on more than fifty charges. Superior Court Judge James Bodiford was required by law to sentence Brian Nichols to life in prison with or without chance of parole after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a death sentence.
On Saturday, Bodiford gave Nichols consecutive maximum sentences on every charge, meaning he will likely die in prison.
Nichols was on trial for rape in 2005 when he grabbed a guard’s gun and fatally shot the judge, a court reporter and a sheriff’s deputy in the courthouse. He fled and killed a federal agent in an Atlanta neighborhood.
He eventually landed in the apartment of a woman who was originally from Columbia County. She is credited with talking Nichols into surrendering peacefully after giving him drugs.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Advertisement
Advertisement