Cobb Judge to Preside Over Nichols Case

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Cobb County Superior Court Judge James Bodiford will take over the Brian Nichols trial. Last week, Judge Hilton Fuller recused himself, under fire for comments made to The New Yorker Magazine, and for multiple delays in the case.

Ask an Atlanta defense attorney to describe Bodiford, and you'll hear he is

PATE: a very good, no-nonsense, get-down-to-business, type of judge. He will certainly get this case moving on a very fast track.

Atlanta defense attorney Page Pate has argued many cases before Judge Bodiford. He says Bodiford can handle the media circus of the Nichols case.

PATE: He knows how to deal with cameras in the courtroom, he knows how to deal with the press, and he knows how to take all of that, but keep the case going forward, and I think that's his greatest asset in handling the Nichols case.

Bodiford presided over the notorious tri-state crematory case in Georgia just a few years ago, and the trial of Lynn Turner, who poisoned a husband and a boyfriend with anti-freeze.

Nichols is charged with shooting three Fulton County Courthouse officials, and a federal agent, in 2005.