The Defense Rests …

Defense lawyers, however, respond that their firepower pales in comparison to the guns the prosecution has arrayed against them. For starters, there's the sprawling 54-count indictment encompassing 11 different crime scenes and 22 victims. Prosecutors also retained famed forensic pathologist Henry Lee as an expert witness, defense lawyers told the judge, and they're drawing on the investigative capabilities of the Atlanta Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, whose agents are assisting with crime-scene reconstruction and other investigative work. In addition, in their arguments to the judge requesting more money, defense lawyers noted that the prosecution's case features 32,000 pages of discovery and a witness list of more than 400 people. Prosecutors declined to comment but according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution told the judge in the case that they have had to forego expensive jury consultants, while the defense plans to use them. And in court filings, the prosecution has noted that they, too have limited funds—while pointing out that Nichols's lead attorney is being paid much more than the $95-an-hour rate typically paid to Georgia public defenders under state law.

In the showdown between Judge Fuller and the legislature, neither side seems to be backing down. "Let me be clear," Fuller wrote in his order. "This case would have proceeded to trial more than one year ago, and at far less cost, had the State of Georgia completed the task it assigned itself as of January 1, 2005, the task of adequate defense funding." For their part, many of the state's powerful Republican lawmakers are vowing not to allocate another dime for indigent defense. In the coming days, the standoff will likely intensify, as a second judge considers contempt charges brought by Fuller against the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council. The second judge's task: to determine whether the state is willfully withholding money it is obligated to spend. As Fuller wrote in his order, "From the outset this court has recognized that defense funding would be a critical factor necessary to ensure a fair trial in this case, but no one anticipated the role that politics has assumed." When it comes to the death penalty, politics is never too far away.

© 2007