Prosecutor: Courthouse killer deserves to die

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Prosecutor Clint Rucker called on Monday for a jury to sentence Brian Nichols to death for the 2005 shooting deaths of four people, including three at a downtown Atlanta courthouse.

"If you give him life and not death, especially given everything he's done, he will have nothing to lose and everything to gain because he is not finished yet," Rucker told the jury.

"He did it once and he will do it again. He is conniving, he is cold-blooded, he is vicious and he is remorseless and he is extremely, extremely dangerous," the prosecutor said.

Nichols was convicted last month of killing a judge and a court reporter in the Fulton County Courthouse, where he was being tried for rape.

He also was convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy outside the courthouse and a federal agent in northern Atlanta before being taken into custody -- 26 hours after his escape.

Nichols was arrested in neighboring Gwinnett County, where he had held a woman hostage in her apartment.

Rucker's closing argument was to be followed by arguments from the defense attorney, who was expected to ask the jury to return a penalty of life without parole.

During the penalty phase of Nichols' trial, jurors heard emotional testimony from relatives of the shooting victims. They also heard about Nichols' middle-class childhood in Baltimore, Maryland, his relationship with the woman who accused him of raping her, and his thwarted attempts to escape from jail as he awaited trial.

The jury is slated to begin deliberations on the penalty phase Tuesday.

In the nearly two years since the jurors were called to hear the case, more than 1,000 pieces of evidence have been submitted and more than 140 witnesses have testified.

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