Jurors in the Colorado theater shooting trial declined to rule out the death penalty Monday as they move toward sentencing James Holmes, finding his defense failed to persuade them to show him mercy.
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Sitting in the public gallery, Holmes’ father, Bob, put an arm around the shoulders of his wife, Arlene, and the couple bowed their heads together.
The same jurors found Holmes guilty last month on 165 charges of murder and attempted murder, after an emotional 10-week trial. Then, the nine women and three men will finally decide whether the 27-year-old should receive a lethal injection, or spend life in prison without parole.
“I’m going to be watching the jury closely”, Samour said.
Psychiatrists who testified for the defense said Holmes lacked the ability to tell right from wrong, and was therefore incapable of acting with criminal intent. Their quick decision Monday raised expectations they will choose a death sentence after what prosecutors estimate will be two or three more days of testimony from survivors. But outside experts differed in their predictions of the final sentence.
Monday’s preliminary verdict was highly technical.
Holmes had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and when the jury declared his guilt he showed no reaction.
But jurors were ultimately more convinced by the prosecution’s psychological evaluations of James Holmes, which claimed that his decision to booby-trap his home in anticipation of police officers was premeditated and calculated – meaning he was fully cognizant when he planned the massacre.
Jurors said Monday that Holmes’ lawyers haven’t presented a strong enough case to eliminate execution as an option.
“They’re making the ultimate decision of life or death, quite literally”, Recht said. “We are far from over on this”. Prosecutors will call victims to testify about the impact of Holmes’ crimes on their lives.
“He was not a violent person”, said Robert Holmes, the shooter’s father. “At least not until the event”, Robert Holmes said, referring to the theater attack.
Holmes was a promising scholar in a demanding neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado until his life went awry amid the pressures of laboratory work.
He broke up with his first and only girlfriend and dropped out of school while amassing an arsenal of weapons, describing his plans in detail in a secret journal.
Seventy others were wounded inside the packed theater in suburban Centennial, when Holmes, dressed in tactical clothing and wearing a gas mask, set off tear gas grenades and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons in July 2012.
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Tom Sullivan had shared his grief in public before, three years ago, when he begged a group of reporters for help as he frantically tried to find his son in the aftermath of the attack. Seventy people were also injured after he opened fire during a mid-night showing of “The Dark Knight”.
