Brian Nichols

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Well, they’ve finally caught him. Living less than 2 hours from Atlanta made us pretty nervous about this situation.

I think (hope) the issue that will eventually come to the forefront is the mistrial he’d previously had. Everyone knew he was guilty the first time, yet because of some silly legal wheelings and dealings there were jurors who couldn’t/wouldn’t come up with the right verdict. Three or four people are dead because once again our courts refused to adequately protect us from dangerous criminals.

Although there are dozen of eyewitnesses to the courthouse murders, and a trail of violence which then followed, there will be another lengthy and expensive trial to come up with a verdict - which theoretically could be not guilty, or could end in another mistrial. When will the legal system wake up?
 
I am glad they caught him,bless your heart I know all of you guys were nervous.He had nothing else to lose at this point.God bless
 
I am so very angry that this situation ever arose. This man should never have been allowed to be in the position where he could get free, grab a gun, and get into the courtroom. Such good people paid for the negligence of the Atlanta/Fulton County Sheriff’s Department!
 
i think they’re still talking about him in the news channels…hope you guys in the affected area/s are alright.
 
What does this do to the claim that society has the means to protect itself from incarcerated murderers? I hear that they had already taken two home made knives off him that day, and were using maximum precautions.

I suppose they were not allowed to chain him down lest it prejudice the Jury.
 
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Patjoe:
I am so very angry that this situation ever arose. This man should never have been allowed to be in the position where he could get free, grab a gun, and get into the courtroom. Such good people paid for the negligence of the Atlanta/Fulton County Sheriff’s Department!
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I really wrestle with this myself. Is it negligence? This guy sounds like a nightmare, and there is only so much an officer can do to secure his/her sidearm and still have it available. But Joe Kelley asks an excellent question! Cardinal O’Connor supposedly once commented on capital punishment in this area, concerning someone who was unbelievably violent to law enforcement even under maximum security.
 
re: the lack of security w/ this violent prisoner. And not my words, “Quick, get a 5 ft gramma to guard the prisoner”.
 
This is on of the situations where I see that the death penalty might have some bearing…how are we supposed to keep this guy locked up? Like you said he already made two knifes under maxium security. What will he be able to do with a life sentance?
 
he proves the arguement for the death penalty! find him guilty, put him in the electric chair, and put it on broil. I dont want him to have free room and board on me!
 
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MJE:
re: the lack of security w/ this violent prisoner. And not my words, “Quick, get a 5 ft gramma to guard the prisoner”.
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Yes but had anyone mentioned that maybe the best guard for a 200lb former football star might NOT be one lone 50 year old woman who weighs 135lbs they would have been taken in by the PC police. This man had already proven himself to be violent toward women. Why wasn’t he escorted by multiple large males?

Lisa N
 
Lisa N:
Yes but had anyone mentioned that maybe the best guard for a 200lb former football star might NOT be one lone 50 year old woman who weighs 135lbs they would have been taken in by the PC police. This man had already proven himself to be violent toward women. Why wasn’t he escorted by multiple large males?
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IS that how he was guarded? REDUCULOUS!!! Insane even. What were they thinking?
 
I did witness a similar trial years ago. The prisoner was guarded by two rather husky males armed only with truncheons. The third guard was some distance away, behind a desk, with a .45.

It seems a better approach.
 
Joe Kelley:
I did witness a similar trial years ago. The prisoner was guarded by two rather husky males armed only with truncheons. The third guard was some distance away, behind a desk, with a .45.

It seems a better approach.
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Yep! The Atlanta police are going to be regretting their lack of security for a long time to come. The families of the victims have a huge case!
 
Lisa N:
Yes but had anyone mentioned that maybe the best guard for a 200lb former football star might NOT be one lone 50 year old woman who weighs 135lbs they would have been taken in by the PC police. This man had already proven himself to be violent toward women. Why wasn’t he escorted by multiple large males?
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First off, Fulton County screwed up big time. Federal law enforcement guidelines required AT LEAST two officers of equal stature to escort this guy at all times. AT NO TIME should a single armed officer have been left alone with this man when unrestrained. He absolutely should have been in shackles, as he does in fact have quite a long rap-sheet. In many counties, even misdemeanor offenders are brought into court in shackles.

He outweighed Hall by 50 lbs, BTW. The poor woman was almost deliberately sent into harm’s way. Thing is, it doesn’t surprise me. Fulton county, and especially City of Atlanta officers have it hard. They get hand-me-down ordinance and equipment, constant derision from the liberal political system, and they can’t do their job without getting slapped with lawsuit after lawsuit. They don’t get treated with any sort of respect from the people they serve, and the administration gives them no support. Oh, and they do this for $35k/year.

I hope some folks in high places lose their jobs over this, but it likely won’t happen. Blame will somehow be shifted to the officers themselves rather than to Nichols and the people who decided that simple security precautions were “too expensive.” All day yesterday, talk radio shows had people calling in using facile arguments to say that this proves how “incompetent” the police supposedly are and how they just won’t give a civilian a break. It sickens me. Even the local paper seems to have taken a very accusatory stance against the officers, rather than the city officials, where the blame belongs.

Of course, this is Fulton county, where the last sheriff-elect was executed gangland-style by the previous sheriff. They’ve decided to appoint a “task force” to investigate yesterday’s incident.
 
Joe Kelley:
I did witness a similar trial years ago. The prisoner was guarded by two rather husky males armed only with truncheons. The third guard was some distance away, behind a desk, with a .45.

It seems a better approach.
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We escort all prisoners going to court in restraints and unarmed. In the event of a trial, the prisoner is only handcuffed when the jury is visible and then an unarmed officer is the closest, first responder. Armed officers keep a distance. You may get be hurt while extra help arrives, but at least we keep deadly weapons out of reach of the inmate.
 
Of course, this is Fulton county, where the last sheriff-elect was executed gangland-style by the previous sheriff. They’ve decided to appoint a “task force” to investigate yesterday’s incident.
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Actually, that “gangland-style” execution was in DeKalb County (where I live), just east of Fulton County.

As to the events of Friday - I had helicopters over my neighborhood for a while Friday while they hunted the “missing” green Honda, and when I went out at 2am Saturday for my regular adoration hour, I was VERY careful, wondering where he might be (and a bit shaken later to discover that a woman out alone at exactly that hour was his last hostage). A friend from my parish who works in the Fulton DAs office had just exited the courthouse 15 seconds before the deputy was shot on the street, and was the second person to reach him.

I was among those frightened, and was very relieved when he was caught. I agree that serious mistakes in security were made, and hope that the people responsible for decision-making will fix some of the on-going problems.

I still don’t agree, however, with the call for the death penalty in this case, or any other. It *IS *possible to keep people securely in prison for life, if necessary, and gives them the opportunity to reflect and repent and reconcile themselves to God. I’m praying for all the victims and their families - I’m also praying for Nichols and for his family. He may be the one who needs our prayers the most!
 
The argument that Nichols be given a chance to repent is a very weak one to use against the death penalty. If he is convicted and sentenced to death, with all the automatic appeals, he will have ample time to repent. If he doesn’t repent in six or eight years, do you really think he will in thirty or forty?
 
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geezerbob:
The argument that Nichols be given a chance to repent is a very weak one to use against the death penalty. If he is convicted and sentenced to death, with all the automatic appeals, he will have ample time to repent. If he doesn’t repent in six or eight years, do you really think he will in thirty or forty?
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Well, maybe it is weak, but it is the one offered by the pope and by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, (2nd edition, paragraph 2267) which says “…the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means… Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity ‘are very rare, if not practically non-existent’”. [emphasis added]
 
Re Repenting

C. S. Lewis asked when is one most likely to repent: Clear headed and in ones youth, the night before certain execution? Or sixty years later in the geriatric ward, senile and half doped up?
 
Lisa N:
Yes but had anyone mentioned that maybe the best guard for a 200lb former football star might NOT be one lone 50 year old woman who weighs 135lbs they would have been taken in by the PC police. This man had already proven himself to be violent toward women. Why wasn’t he escorted by multiple large males?

Lisa N
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On the Abrahms Report (MSNBC) that I watch to bring my blood pressure up;) He always interviews different people in any given news story and OF COURSE the radical feminist and some of their group including males are furious that anyone would dare say that that poor women could not have been capable of taking care of this:nope: Anyway, I guess they are intent on putting women in these situations,that makes me very angry.
 
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