There nev­er was any ques­tion that Brian Nichols was guilty of the cour­t­house shoot­ing of a judge and three oth­er vic­tims in 2005. He had offered to plead guilty if the death penal­ty was not pur­sued, but the state insist­ed on a full death penal­ty tri­al that end­ed up being the most expen­sive cap­i­tal case in Georgia’s his­to­ry. In 2008, the case con­clud­ed with Nichols being sen­tenced to life with­out parole. Recently, the defense costs were revealed to be more than $3 mil­lion, with the state pay­ing $2.3 mil­lion, and Fulton County pay­ing about $625,000. The costs of the pros­e­cu­tion and oth­er tri­al-relat­ed expens­es have not been revealed, though state offi­cials esti­mat­ed it cost an addi­tion­al $300,000 for state-sup­plied staff and other expenses.

Lead defense attor­ney Henderson Hill said that funds were need­ed to inves­ti­gate Nichols’ wide-rang­ing back­ground and men­tal health issues. These facts would be cru­cial in coun­ter­ing the state’s case for the death penal­ty. Among the defense costs was $463,000 for men­tal health experts, inves­ti­ga­tors and a tri­al con­sul­tant to help the defense. Fulton County said it paid anoth­er $125,000 for men­tal health costs.

(R. Cook & S. Visser, ​“Murderer Nichols’ tab: $3 mil­lion and grow­ing,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 22, 2009). See Costs and Sentencing.

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