Nichols Lawyers to Court: Drop DA’s Suit

From The Associated Press:

Lawyers for a man charged with murder in a rampage that started in a courtroom urged the state Supreme Court on Thursday to reject prosecutors’ efforts to replace them and the judge overseeing the case.

The trial of Brian Nichols, accused of killing the judge in his rape trial and three other people in 2005, has been put on hold by Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller because the state public defender’s office says it has no more money for an effort that already has cost $1.8 million.

District Attorney Paul Howard has sued Fuller, asking the Supreme Court to order the judge to replace the outside attorneys appointed to represent Nichols with staff attorneys from the defender’s office. He also wants the high court to order that jury selection resume, and questioned whether Fuller should be removed from the case.

Nichols’ lawyers said in their filing that prosecutors and the court agreed to the four attorneys representing Nichols, and that there is no reason to remove them now. They added that removing them would “decimate the Sixth Amendment right to counsel,” for Nichols and for other indigent defendants.

The defense said Fuller has done nothing to warrant being removed from the case, and they noted most of his rulings have been in favor of prosecutors.

Nichols’ lawyers said Howard’s filing “is nothing more than a blatant effort to discharge a judge whose rulings and management of an ongoing criminal proceeding he dislikes, and to remove a defendant’s attorneys whose insistence on adequate funding for the defense function he cannot countenance.”

Howard filed a supplement to his lawsuit Thursday, saying there is no reason not to grant the relief he is requesting, because Fuller has stated he does not plan to file a response to the suit and the state attorney general has declined to represent Fuller, citing a conflict of interest.

The high court has yet to agree to hear the lawsuit or schedule any hearings.

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