Brian Nichols

Brian Nichols, the Atlanta courthouse gunman, has recently agreed to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. The prosecution has refused to accept this deal as has the family of the murdered deputy. Now lets be clear, this man, in cold blood murdered a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and an off duty federal agent. As well, he seriously injured another deputy. The main argument I have heard for the prosecution accepting the plea deal is money, the argument being it could cost the taxpayers up to Five Million Dollars to prosecute this man, money the City of Atlanta currently does not have. By my calculations and based on what I have read, it cost the state about $50,000.00 a year to feed and house a prisoner for a year and obviously this cost increases yearly so assuming he lives another 50 or 60 years the state will not be saving any money so we can really remove money from the equation. It should also be documented he has obviously escaped custody once when he murdered these people and court records show he has planned to escape since he was arrested again after the murders. Whether you support the death penalty or not, this man has murdered before and shown little if any any remorse and he remains today a risk to escape and murder again at any time. I heard a police officer recently refer to Brian Nichols as "the devil in disguise" and I would agree with that, this is a good looking, charismatic man who in a jury trial has the potential to sway a jury and if nothing else avoid the death penalty. It is my hope that the City of Atlanta does go to trial and fully prosecute Brian Nichols. It is also my hope that a jury of this man's peers does both convict him and sentence him to death. There is no doubt in my mind he will if allowed to live, try repeatedly to escape and possibly at some point be successful. As a society, we need to, in this instance, with both words and actions, strongly say that the taking of these lives was unacceptable and Brian Nichols you will not manipulate our system.