Brian Nichols on Wednesday officially declared he was insane in March 2005 when the four killings he is charged with happened.

Today Nichols' lawyers and prosecutors will begin —- again —- trying to pick a jury.

Nichols contends he couldn't control his actions on March 11, 2005, when he is accused of fatally shooting a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff's deputy and a federal officer. He suffered from a delusional compulsion that "overmastered his will," according to court papers filed Wednesday.

If Nichols is found insane at the time of the killings, he would be sent to a secure mental hospital to be evaluated and kept there until he was determined not to be threat to himself or others, said Thomas West, a lawyer and expert in capital-murder defense who is not involved in this case.

"If the doctors find that he is OK, they can make a report that he should be released but there would have to be a hearing before a judge," West said. "The court has to determine if he can be released."

West said success in using an insanity defense is "rare" since a jury found John Hinckley was not guilty by reason of insanity in the assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Jury selection for Nichols has been delayed, started and then delayed again because of legal issues, most notably funding problems for Nichols' defense team.

Nichols' attorneys tried to delay the selection again this week when they argued they needed first to resolve legal issues involving Superior Court Judge James Bodiford, the trial judge, and District Attorney Paul Howard.

The lawyers contend Bodiford made public comments after the killing that suggest he may be biased against Nichols. They also claim Howard isn't turning over evidence that might undermine the credibility of a key witness, a former assistant district attorney who was prosecuting Nichols for rape in a previous trial.

Nichols was on trial on charges of kidnapping and raping his former girlfriend when he allegedly assaulted a deputy, escaped from his holding cell and went on the shooting rampage.

"We think it is far more practical to resolve these things before we spend several days in [jury selection]," Robert McGlasson, one of Nichols' attorneys, argued to Bodiford in court earlier this week.

Bodiford said there would be no delay.

"Here is what is not going to happen —- we are not going to [delay] this case," he told McGlasson. "We are going to start on Thursday morning."

Jury selection last got under way in October 2007, when lawyers questioned two people before then-presiding Senior Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller stopped jury selection because the state had quit paying Nichols' lawyers and their expenses. The costs had totaled more than $1.2 million in early 2007.

The lawyers worked out a funding compromise with the state Public Defender Standards Council, the agency that oversees funding for defense lawyers in court-appointed cases, and with Fulton County. But the case was again delayed when Fuller stepped down in January after being quoted about Nichols on the New Yorker magazine Web site.

Bodiford, who replaced Fuller, has said he believes a jury will be chosen much more quickly than the two or three months predicted by prosecutors and defense lawyers.

"I think it's going to take a shorter time than both you and the state think," Bodiford told McGlasson at a hearing Tuesday. "I believe it is going to move very quickly."

UPDATE

THE STORY SO FAR

> Previously: Brian Nichols is charged with killing a judge, a court reporter and another deputy in the Fulton County Courthouse after escaping custody while being held for a rape trial in 2005, and then leaving the courthouse area and killing a federal officer.

> The latest: On Wednesday, Nichols pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Next: Jury selection starts today. The trial is expected to take months.