Will We Have The First Execution Of The Year?

This photo released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Curtis Moore who is scheduled for execution at the Texas prison in Huntsville on Jan। 14. Moore, condemned for the slayings of three people during a drug-ripoff robbery in 1995 in Fort Worth, is set for lethal injection this week in what would be the first execution in the United States in 2009.

(AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

This file photo, to the right, released by the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services shows the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb. In a pre-session survey by the ssociated Press, 28 of 49 senators or senators-elect said they supported changing Nebraska's method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection। Two said they opposed changing the law, four said they were unsure, three said they opposed the death penalty, three skipped the question and nine didn't respond to the survey. (AP Photo/Nebraska Dept. of Correctional Services, Mikael Karlsson, File)

Atlanta shooter sentence to change death penalty decisions?

Ga. courthouse gunman gets life in prison after jury fails to agree on death

(Associated Press) ATLANTA - A jury's inability to condemn courthouse gunman Brian Nichols to death has re-energized efforts by Georgia lawmakers to allow a judge to consider capital punishment even if there's no unanimous verdict, as a growing chorus of officials says it's time to give the policy another look. Nichols was sentenced Saturday to life in prison without parole after a jury failed to deliver a unanimous death sentence for the murders of four people. Minutes after the sentencing, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard became among the first to call for a revived effort to tweak the death penalty rules. Follow this story:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28222533/