DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 5:20 p.m. November 25, 2008
Psychiatrist: ‘I can’t assume’ Nichols is dangerous
Defendant saw brownies baked by court reporter as part of conspiracy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A New York psychiatrist took a defensive stance as a prosecutor tried to make him admit that Brian Nichols would be dangerous if he escaped again.
Dr. Richard G. Dudley Jr. had testified that Nichols is still delusional — a diagnosis the jury has rejected in deciding Nichols guilt. Defense lawyers hope that argument will still save Nichols’ life.
Kimberly Smith/ksmith@ajc.com
Brian Nichols sat with his defense team during testimony Tuesday.
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“So he still poses a danger … to the citizens of Fulton County should he escape again?” asked prosecutor Clint Rucker.
“No, I can’t assume that,” said Dudley, who was called as a defense witness.
Rucker looked perplexed. He had just got the psychiatrist to state he believed that Nichols killed four people on March 11, 2005, because he believed he was leading a “slave rebellion.” And Dudley said Nichols’ mental health had deteriorated during seven months in jail before he escaped from custody during his rape trial and committed the killings.
Rucker suggested that Nichols should now be more delusional after spending more than three years in jail but Dudley said the delusion waxes and wanes.
“It depends on the intensity of the delusion,” he said.
Rucker started asking about how Nichols has behaved since the murders while in jail awaiting trial: Would the presence of homemade weapons and handcuff keys in his cell make Nichols dangerous? Would escape plans make him dangerous? Would statements of killing people if necessary to escape make him dangerous?
The tall, slender Dudley scrunched his shoulders a bit more as he answered “yes” to each question.
Rucker tried again: “Should he escape, he is still a danger to the public?”
“I’m a little less clear about that,” Dudley said.
“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, would you agree with that?” Rucker asked.
Dudley replied: “It is one of the predictors.”
Juror rejected Nichols’ not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity plea and convicted him of four capital murders on Nov. 7. In the penalty phase of the trial, prosecutors who are seeking the death penalty put on evidence that Nichols will pose a continuing danger to society. Nichols has pledged to escape from prison, take vengeance against his alleged rape victim, a long-term girlfriend, and “die on his feet,” according to evidence.
He defense lawyers hope evidence that Nichols, despite having a middle-class upbringing, had a traumatized childhood and suffered from mental-health problems will stop the jury from delivering what would be the fourth Fulton County death penalty in 12 years.
Dudley testified that Nichols, 36, was sexually abused as a young boy by his older brother, Mark, and “Reginald,” an older cousin. Later in life, Nichols, who became a body builder and a martial artist, saw himself as a protector of vulnerable people, Dudley said.
Dudley said the cousin is the one who told him about the sexual abuse. Prosecutors claim they will refute such claims with a tape-recording of a phone call they will play later in the penalty phase, which is expected to last into December.
Nichols was on trial for rape when he overpowered two sheriff’s deputies, seized their pistols, and went into the courtroom and killed Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, 64, who was presiding over his rape trial, and the court reporter, 46-year-old Julie Ann Brandau. He killed Deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley, 43, who tried to capture him outside the courthouse; and, that night, he shot to death 40-year-old David Wilhelm, a U.S. Customs agent, at a house the agent was building and where Nichols sought shelter.
Dudley gave a new motive for Brandau’s death, which had puzzled investigators because Nichols was selective in his killing and hadn’t shot other court staff.
Nichols claimed he killed Brandau because each night she baked goodies for the jurors to enjoy the next day, Dudley told jurors.
Nichols said he believed the baking showed Brandau was helping the judge and prosecutors convict him, Dudley said.
“He thought she was tampering with the jury by bringing them brownies and cookies,” Dudley said. “It was his belief that she was part of the conspiracy.”
Nichols contended prosecutors and judge were part of a conspiracy to turn him into a slave by sending him to a prison where the ancestors of 19th Century slave owners would profit from his labor.
The baking story was a different from what Nichols had told in his taped confession to Atlanta Police. In the confession, Nichols at first said she was the “secondary target” of his assault on the court.
Later in the interview, he claimed, he didn’t remember shooting her at all.
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