Letters: Courthouse Gunman Angry at Justice System

The Atlanta courthouse gunman said in letters that he escaped from guards and then killed four people in a shooting rampage to fight back against what he believed was a racist justice system, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

In the letters, which were among thousands of Georgia Bureau of Investigation documents reviewed exclusively by the AP, Brian Nichols lays out his motive for the March 2005 slayings in stark racial terms.

“Certain dogs you can kick and they tuck their tail between their legs and run,” he wrote in a July 2005 letter to a man who criticized him. “Others if kicked will turn and bite the individual responsible. I hate to say it, but it’s the truth that black men have done way too much tail tuckin.”

While awaiting trial on rape charges, Nichols overpowered a guard at the Fulton County Courthouse and fatally shot a judge, court reporter, deputy and federal agent. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December 2008.

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Nichols said he was infuriated that the judge, Rowland Barnes, was holding him without bond on rape charges while other inmates awaiting trial were set free.

He compared himself to Dany Heatley, a former Atlanta Thrashers star, whom Barnes allowed to remain free on bail after he was charged with vehicular homicide in a 2003 crash that killed a teammate.

“White boy, driving crazy killed somebody. Was he not a threat to the community having killed a person as a result of his reckless behavior?” he wrote.

He said “no black man has ever made a stand such as mine” and insisted the shootings sent a message.

“Perhaps my children of another generation won’t find their back against the wall, subjected to unequal treatment under the law. Unfortunately, my sacrifice is not enough to prevent that from happening, but perhaps it’s a start.”

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{snip} Prosecutors this week decided not to charge Meneguzzo and three other people who investigators say were involved in a separate, bizarre plot to help him escape from the Fulton County Jail while he was awaiting trial.

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