Superior Court Judge James Bodiford called the victim "a friend" and the killing "a brutal murder," but that doesn't mean he can't be fair to the man accused of the slaying, another judge ruled Thursday.

DeKalb Superior Court Judge Daniel Coursey denied Brian Nichols' request to remove Bodiford from the much-delayed case.

Nichols, who faces a death penalty trial, is charged with killing a judge, court reporter, sheriff deputy and a federal agent in the March 11, 2005, Fulton County Courthouse shooting and its aftermath.

His attorneys asked that Bodiford, who normally presides in Cobb County Superior Court, be removed because he had been quoted in a newspaper shortly after the killings.

In the article, Bodiford spoke fondly of Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, who had been killed, and said Barnes' death hit him emotionally. He also spoke about the brutal nature of the killings.

The defense argued that Bodiford's relationship with Barnes was similar to the Fulton County judges who recused themselves and his comments were more prejudicial than those made by Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who stepped down earlier this year after being quoted in the New Yorker magazine as saying everyone knows Nichols committed the killings. Bodiford replaced Fuller.

One of Nichols' attorneys, Josh Moore, told Coursey at a hearing last week that Bodiford's comments go "right at the heart of the defense" because Nichols plans an insanity plea that will question whether he was too deranged during the killings to be held liable.

On Tuesday, the defense filed more court papers asking for another hearing because it learned Bodiford had met with another judge to discuss the Nichols case shortly after being appointed in February. That judge, Henry County Superior Court Judge Arch McGarity, had expressed anger at the slow pace of the case and at the state-paid tab for Nichols' defense team, according to Tuesday's filing. Fuller had refused to move the case forward because of a funding fight between Nichols' lawyers and the state Public Defenders Standards Council.

That hearing also was denied.