DEL.ICIO.USBRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL
Hired defense psychologist caught off guard
Killer plagiarized college paper on which expert had based opinion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, October 23, 2008
A prosecutor sparred with a defense psychologist Thursday to pull apart his expert opinion that Brian Nichols is delusional.
The hired psychologist, Mark Cunningham, who began testifying Monday, looked frustrated when prosecutor Kellie Hill would accuse him of not answering her questions when he tried to expand his answers away from her narrowly tailored queries.
KIMBERLY SMITH / ksmith@ajc.com
Prosecutor Kellie S. Hill questions defense witness Dr. Mark Cunningham, a psychologist, during testimony Thursday.
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“This could be a lot easier,” Hill said to him. “Listen to my question.”
Nichols has confessed to four killings: Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau, and sheriff’s deputy Hoyt Teasley, after escaping from a cell at the Fulton County Courthouse where he was on trial for rape on March 11, 2005. David Wilhelm, a U.S. Customs Agent, was killed later that day while Nichols was on the run.
Nichols contended he was leading a “slave rebellion” against the justice system and has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Cunningham acceded points only grudgingly during the three hours of contentious testimony that continues this afternoon.
In previous testimony for the defense, Cunningham said he based his opinion that Nichols’ grandiose view of his own importance was shown in his view that he was “The People’s Champ.” Cunningham also said the “seeds of the delusion” were found in Nichols’ college writings, in which he demonstrated an extremist perspective of the criminal justice system and its role in oppressing blacks.
Cunningham was caught by surprise when he learned from the prosecution that Nichols had plagiarized chunks of a college paper on which he had based part of his opinion. The psychologist contended the plagiarism was not important.
When Hill suggested that the plagiarism showed the “seeds of deception,” Cunningham dismissed the suggestion by saying plagiarism was common among college students.
“That does not point to very much about their character,” he said.
Hill then moved to the “People’s Champ” assertion. She noted that Nichols — in a letter to a woman who had a romantic interest in him — said he wasn’t the “People’s Champ.” Instead, Hill said, Nichols wrote that other people considered him one.
Cunningham contended the grandiosity was implied by Nichols’ subsequent claim in the letter that “a lot of people feel I’m a hero of some sort.”
Cunningham said he doubted anybody considered Nichols a hero. Hill said prisoners cheered Nichols at times in the jail.
“If he is cheered by other inmates as a hero, how can you say that if he has told somebody that he is regarded as a hero, that is fantastical?” Hill asked. “Did you know that people have written songs about him?”
Cunningham said he was unfamiliar with any songs but said he only understood that Nichols got “encouragement” from other inmates.
“You don’t know that other people regard him as some sort of hero?” asked the prosecutor, who earlier had challenged the quality of Cunningham’s opinion, which is based on interviews of Nichols, his friends and family, and of his reputed writings.
Lead defense lawyer Henderson Hill objected — as he had throughout the testimony — to the question, prompting Superior Court James Bodiford to ask: ” Now why couldn’t she ask that?
The defense lawyer paused. “Ur, the court stumps me,” said Hill, who is not related to the prosecutor. He sat down
Cunningham then answered that he interpreted Nichols’ letter to imply that he was referring to the larger community, not to his fellow inmates, when he wrote “a lot of people feel I’m a hero.”
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