Nichols trial: Clusters of people wait for jury’s decision

In the sixth-floor hallway outside the Brian Nichols trial courtroom Friday, there was little evidence of the tension and the life-and-death decision being made just out of the public’s view.

Claudia Barnes, widow of Nichols victim Judge Rowland Barnes, said she’s ready for the case to end.

PHOTOS
• A look at the case 2005-present
• Penalty phase | Verdict
• Weeks in court:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

• Interactive graphic: The 2005 shootings
• Video: Nichols' confession

MORE STORIES

• 4 years after attacks, courthouse lacks security plan 
• Gwinnett won't prosecute Nichols for kidnapping 
• Feds won't seek death penalty for Nichols 
• In prison, cellphone is coveted contraband 
• Police reveal little about Nichols manhunt errors 
• Nichols trial holdouts: 'Show me something' 

• Nichols says he was at war with U.S. government in taped confession
• AJC's full trial coverage

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“I’m anxious,” she said. “I’m almost numb just from waiting.”

She’s been in the courtroom almost every day for 52 days of testimony and three days of sentencing deliberations. She’s had to endure hearing audiotapes of her husband being shot by Nichols and gruesome videos that showed the bloody death scene.

The judge’s widow said she has been trying to figure out what the hung jury’s delay means. The panel split 9-3 on Thursday and asked Judge James Bodiford if they could re-hear a tape recording of Nichols saying he’d kill again.

“You just can’t read people,” she said.

In the hallway outside the courtroom Friday afternoon were only one spectator and four deputies assigned to staff the metal detector that screens those entering the courtroom.

The jury was cloistered in a room behind the courtroom.

Nichols’ parents, Gene and Claritha Nichols, also waited — reading, talking or watching movies on a laptop computer — in an office set aside for their son’s defense team.

And in an adjacent courtroom, about 20 people who survived and loved Judge Barnes and Nichols’ other three murder victims talked and read and waited — hoping for a decision on Friday on how Nichols will be punished.

In another sixth-floor courtroom that has been the base for reporters covering the trial, Christmas music played softly. Most of the reporters sit and wait, some staring at the screens of their laptop computers. One played a game of solitaire. Others wrote their next story or preparing for upcoming newscasts.

Only once did the lawyers, the spectators and Bodiford gather in the courtroom Friday; first thing in the morning to discuss, again, the jury’s request Thursday to hear certain tape recordings.

Otherwise, the jury was quiet, as far as the public is concerned. They have not sent any more notes with questions — and have not submitted in writing a request to re-hear the controversial “bombshell” tape recording.

By 2:30 p.m., they had not advised Bodiford that they are unable to agree on a punishment. Bodiford has told them he’ll bring them back in Saturday if no decision is made Friday.