The judge presiding in the case of a courthouse shooting spree in Atlanta resigned Wednesday after a national magazine published an articled quoting him as saying, “everyone in the world knows he did it.”

Fulton County Superior Court Hilton Fuller recuse himself in a letter to Chief Judge Dorris Downs, court spokesperson Don Plummer said, according to CNN. Fuller was quoted in the January 30 issue of The New Yorker magazine, written by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, as saying “only defense” open to Nichols’ defense attorneys was an insanity defense, “because everyone in the world knows he did it.”

Nichols, 36, whose trial has already been delayed five times, is charged in the March 2005 killings of a Fulton judge, a court reporter, and another sheriff’s deputy as he fled the courthouse while being on trial for rape. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty against him.

On the other hand, defense attorneys have sustained that Nichols suffered a “delusional compulsion” when he committed the shootings. Therefore, they have said they intend to use that as the basis for an insanity defense.

“Judicial impartiality, real and perceived, is a critical element of the trial process. In light of recent media reports, I am no longer hopeful that I can provide a trial perceived to be fair for both the state and the accused. Whether I was accurately quoted is immaterial. What is material is the perception created by that attribution. For that reason, I hereby recuse myself from further proceedings in this case,” Fuller wrote in the recusal order.

After the article appeared, Fuller has told reporters that he was not speaking for attribution when he talked with Toobin. However, Toobin said Wednesday that the interview was “clearly on the record.”

Troup County Superior Court Judge Quillian Baldwin, the administrative judge for the Sixth Judicial District, will name Fuller’s replacement because all the Fulton County Superior Court judges recused themselves. The decision will be taken in a few days, Baldwin said.