USA - Georgia. Judge James Bodiford sentenced Brian Nichols, 37, black, to multiple life sentences for 4 murders

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford sentenced Brian Nichols, 37, black, to multiple life sentences with no chance of parole and hundreds more years on more than fifty charges. Nichols was found guilty last month of 4 murders and dozens of other counts for the March 11, 2005 rampage that led from a downtown courthouse to an Atlanta neighbourhood and ended with his capture the next day in a suburban county. Judge Bodiford handed down the maximum sentence on each charge, to run consecutively. "If there was any more I could give you, I would," the judge said. Nichols was spared multiple death sentences when his jury failed to reach a unanimous decision recommending the punishment, as required by Georgia law. It seems that the jury deadlocked 9-3. Nichols was being escorted to his trial for rape when he beat a deputy guarding him and stole her gun. He burst into the courtroom and shot and killed Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and Deputy Hoyt Teasley. He fled downtown Atlanta and managed to evade hundreds of police officers searching for him overnight. In Atlanta's posh Buckhead neighborhood, he shot and killed federal agent David Wilhelm. Nichols was captured the next day after a woman he took hostage, Ashley Smith Robinson, alerted police to his whereabouts. (se also 04/03/2008)