DA seeks to get rid of judge in Nichols case

ATLANTA - A prosecutor sought Thursday to remove the presiding judge in the murder case of accused courthouse shooter Brian Nichols, arguing that the judge has violated ethics rules by indefinitely delaying the trial.

District Attorney Paul Howard said in a motion that Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller should be disqualified from handling any more of the case.

The motion was filed in Superior Court before Fuller. A previous petition filed in the state Supreme Court that questioned whether Fuller should be removed but did not seek his removal outright was rejected by the high court, which said the petition should first be filed in Superior Court.

Fuller likely will have to recuse himself from deciding the disqualification motion, since it involves him. There was no immediate action by Fuller.

Fuller has suspended Nichols' murder trial indefinitely because the state public defender's office has cut off funding to Nichols' lawyers and he is concerned that if the trial were to go forward and Nichols were convicted, an appellate court would reverse the conviction because of ineffective counsel.

In Thursday's motion, Howard reasserted his contention that when Fuller recused himself from handling a previous defense motion that had asked to hold the state public defender's office in contempt for not funding Nichols' lawyers the judge effectively recused himself from the entire case. Howard said the fact that the defense motion was later withdrawn should have no bearing on the issue.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council has said Nichols' defense had cost the council $1.8 million by the end of June, when it cut off funding to Nichols' lawyers because it couldn't meet its obligations to lawyers for other indigent defendants in Georgia.

Nichols was being escorted to a courtroom in the Fulton County Courthouse for the continuation of his retrial on rape charges when he allegedly beat a deputy, stole her gun and went on the shooting spree on March 11, 2005.

He is accused of killing the judge presiding over the rape trial; a court reporter chronicling the proceeding; a sheriff's deputy who chased him outside; and a federal agent he encountered that night. Nichols surrendered the next day after allegedly taking a woman hostage in her suburban Atlanta home.

Nichols, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted of murder, has pleaded not guilty.