Jury Begins Deliberations for Courthouse Gunman

The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) -- A jury has begun deliberating the fate of an Atlanta man found guilty of killing a judge and three other people in a shooting spree that started in a downtown courthouse.

The jury started considering whether Brian Nichols should be sentenced to death, life in prison or life without parole around 9:45 a.m. today.

The 36-year-old Nichols was on trial for rape when he grabbed a guard's gun and killed the judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy at the courthouse in March 2005. He fled and killed a federal agent in an Atlanta neighborhood.

Nichols had confessed to the killings but claimed he was legally insane.

Prosecutors said Nichols concocted his delusions to avoid the death penalty.

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