Jury deadlocked on penalty for Atlanta courthouse shooter

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Jurors in the Brian Nichols trial were ordered Thursday to resume deliberating his punishment, despite their assertion earlier in the day that they were unable to reach a unanimous agreement.

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford ordered the deliberations to continue Thursday afternoon.

Prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty for Nichols, 36, who was convicted 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. He was taken into custody 26 hours after his escape, in neighboring Gwinnett County, where he held a woman hostage in her apartment.

If after further deliberations, the jury is still split, the judge may poll the jury again. If seven or more jurors are in favor of the death penalty or a life sentence without parole, the judge can sentence Nichols to life without parole.

If the majority are in favor of a life sentence with the possibility of parole, the judge can pass only that sentence.

Prosecutor Clint Rucker called Monday for Nichols to be sentenced to death on the 54 counts.

"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 defense said Nichols, who confessed to the killings, suffered from a mental disorder.

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.

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.

All About Brian Nichols • Criminal Trials • Capital Punishment