A short­age of state funds to pay defense attor­neys, experts, and inves­ti­ga­tors has brought jury selec­tion in the tri­al of Brian Nichols in Georgia to a halt. Superior Court Judge Hilton M. Fuller (pic­tured), Jr. stopped jury selec­tion after just two days due to con­cerns that Nichols’ defense team did not have ade­quate fund­ing to rep­re­sent their client. His rul­ing came in response to a defense motion that not­ed, “[A]t this time, and for some peri­od of time in the past, no defense experts have been engaged in ongo­ing efforts on this case.… Several experts and inves­ti­ga­tors have sent demand let­ters … declar­ing that unless and until the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council makes good on pend­ing bills, no sig­nif­i­cant ongo­ing fur­ther work will be con­duct­ed.” In his rul­ing, Hilton expressed frus­tra­tion with hav­ing to delay the case, but added that he is ​“inter­est­ed in get­ting this case tried … in a way the con­sti­tu­tion requires.”

The pros­e­cu­tion is seek­ing the death penal­ty against Nichols for charges stem­ming from a 2005 Fulton County Courthouse shoot­ing inci­dent. Nichols has appar­ent­ly agreed to plead guilty (and there­by elim­i­nate expens­es) in exchange for a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council has stat­ed that it is not capa­ble of both pay­ing the costs for Nichols’ tri­al and car­ry­ing out its duty in rough­ly 80 oth­er cap­i­tal cas­es in the state. The state main­tains that there is not enough mon­ey for oth­er cap­i­tal cas­es and it was forced to cut off fund­ing for Nichols’ case as of July 1, 2007. To date, Georgia’s leg­is­la­ture and Governor have refused to step in to address the fund­ing prob­lem. Fuller has warned that the case may nev­er go for­ward with­out ade­quate defense fund­ing.

Georgia Senator Vincent Fort said that he is con­cerned that his col­leagues in the leg­is­la­ture have not act­ed to address the prob­lem: ​“What con­cerns me is that the judge is say­ing this will be kicked back, that on appeal this will be sent back, and iron­i­cal­ly what that means is it will cost what? More mon­ey.… The coun­cil needs to come for­ward, the state, the Perdue admin­is­tra­tion needs to find a way to fund this. It’s a mat­ter of being pen­ny­wise and pound fool­ish.”
(Fulton County Daily Report, October 18, 2007; Associated Press, October 18, 2007; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 6, 2007). See Costs, Representation, and Life Without Parole.

Citation Guide