No New Judge In Nichols Case, Supreme Court Says, But High Court Sends Message To Get Things Moving

(11/30/07) No, you can’t get a new judge in the Brian Nichols case. But, yes, this case needs to get moving, the Georgia Supreme Court declared Friday in dismissing a bid by Fulton DA Paul Howard to get Judge Hilton Fuller removed from the case.

The court unanimously dismissed the petition - but on procedural grounds. Howard first should have initiated the case in superior court, not the Supreme Court, the justices declared. The result then could have been appealed to the high court.

But on the question of whether the accused courthouse shooter’s trial has gone smoothly to this point, the court had some definite opinions.

“I feel compelled to write separately to express my deep disappointment at the lack of progress in the underlying criminal case,” Chief Justice Leah Sears wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice George Carley.

The concurrence chastises both sides of the case. “As officers of the court, counsel for both the prosecution and the defense have professional responsibilities, not only to their clients but to the judicial system, itself ... Neither side is allowed to seek to derail the process entirely.”

As for Judge Fuller, the two judges wrote in the concurrence that it is his responsibility “to maintain control of the proceedings and to ensure that neither side, whether by design or otherwise, is able to disrupt the prompt and orderly administration of justice.”

Here’s the money quote: “Far more difficult and complex cases have been tried in this state without generating the degree of contentiousness and delay that has plagued this one,” Sears wrote.

She ended by urging “a fair and expeditious resolution of this matter.”

The lack of progress and the cost of the state-funded defense in the case has had top lawmakers biting the heads off nails for months, to the point that Speaker Glenn Richardson has named a special committee to investigate the expenditures and even determine whether the judge should be impeached.