The effort to get Brian Nichols to trial for the killing of a judge and three others more than three years ago crested the hill and picked up speed this week.

Judge James Bodiford struck an agreement with attorneys on both sides reducing by 10 — from 100 to 90 — the number of jurors needed in the pool to pick the final 12 jurors and six alternates.

Alison Church / AJC (ENLARGE)

Judge James Bodiford denied a defense request to prevent the press from writing in detail about jury selection in the murder case against Brian Nichols, who is accused of killing a judge and three others. ALISON CHURCH / Special

• Trial photos: Penalty phase | Verdict Week 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 • Opening arguments • Interactive graphic: Timeline of shootings • BLOG: Discuss the verdict RECENT STORIES Witness says Nichols was model employee at H-P  Nichols defense team gets an earful from judge  Nichols trial penalty phase to stretch on  Spare Nichols because of his awful childhood, witnesses say  Nichols saw brownies as part of conspiracy, psychiatrist says  Nichols was abused as a child, psychiatrist says  Hired defense psychologist caught off guard Nichols' mother calls him easygoing, 'a gentleman' Nichols says he was at war with U.S. government in taped confession Ashley Robinson says Nichols tried to recruit her AJC's full trial coverage RELATED LINKS Atlanta news Georgia and metro news

That meant the number of jurors put into the jury pool through Friday — 51 — was well past the midway mark on the 19th day of jury selection. Bodiford predicted the jury pool would be full by Aug. 23.

The judge has said there may be a break between filling the pool and prosecution and defense attorneys diving in for the final jury selection, which may take only two days.

He said he probably will start the trial the following day, which would be late August or early September.

Bodiford said he expects the trial to be over by the end of the year. He has hinted it would last at least 10 weeks.

This week Bodiford denied a defense request to prevent the press from writing in detail about jury selection.

Nichols' lawyers argued the reports are "saturating the jury pool with prejudicial and inflammatory reporting." Bodiford disagreed.

Nichols, who is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, is charged in a 54-count indictment with the March 11, 2005 killings of Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau, Fulton County Deputy Hoyt Teasley, and federal agent David Wilhelm.

There was no jury selection Saturday. Some highlights from the week:

• Juror No. 170 made no secret of her hostility toward Nichols and indicated she favored a Chinese execution custom — the condemned person's family pays for the bullet.

To remove her from the pool the defense simply had her read from her questionnaire. "Brian Nichols should have paid for five funerals, one of them his own" the juror read.

Juror No. 170 was excused.

• Juror No. 160 said he has little trust in the media reports about the Nichols case and wanted to serve on the jury to ensure him a fair trial.

The middle-aged woman said her son's drug problems and his going through drug rehabilitation made her even more empathetic to troubled people.

"I would want somebody on the jury who would not prejudge my loved one," said juror No. 160, who described herself as "cafeteria Catholic" who didn't always follow Church dictates.

"For instance, the Catholic Church is against abortion and I'm pro-choice," she said. "I'm a free thinker."

Juror No. 160 was kept.

• Juror No. 195 added a fresh twist to the tortuous process of wresting simple answers from jurors on the complex matters of impartiality, insanity and death.

Was she telling prosecutor Clint Rucker what he wanted to hear because she thought it would get her a job in the Fulton County District Attorney's office?

Rucker misread Juror No. 195's questionnaire and asked the out-of-work woman: "Have you applied to our department — I'm just asking."

Juror No. 195 responded: "I was hoping you were offering."

Bodiford laughed, Rucker laughed, and so did many in the courtroom. Rucker quickly added it was not a job offer.

The juror, whose aunt was murdered, said that because of her religious faith, she opposed the death penalty.

Rucker, however, extracted from her the assertion that yes, in spite of her religious beliefs, she could "realistically focus on death in this case."

Defense lawyer Hill moved to strike her from the pool because he said he believed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because of her aunt's murder and that would impair her judgment.

With the juror out of the room, Bodiford said he was more worried juror No. 195 might still be trying to get a job by telling Rucker what he wanted to hear. He called the juror back in and questioned her.

She said she understood there was no job offer. And, no, that would not impair her judgment as a juror. Bodiford overruled the defense objection.

Juror No. 195 was added to the pool.

— Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.