Sullivan said he couldn’t understand how the jury could vote to convict Holmes, then vote to keep the death penalty as an option, and then fail to reach a unanimous decision.
Advertisement
Their sentencing decision was announced shortly after 5 p.m. MDT after about 6-1/2 hours of deliberation.
On July 20, 2012, Holmes entered a theater in Aurora, Colorado, where hundreds of people were attending a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises“, and opened fire, killing 12, and injuring 70.
But the jury rejected that defense in July, convicting him of a total of 165 counts, including the 24 charges of first-degree murder.
Jurors spared the life of the man who killed 12 moviegoers and injured 70 others in a crowded suburban theater three years ago, accepting arguments that his severe mental illness prevented him from understanding the gravity of his actions. Seventy others were also wounded in the attack.
Jurors in the Colorado theater shooting trial will review a graphic crime scene video before deciding whether to give James Holmes the death penalty.
“The death of a seriously mentally ill man is not justice”, defense attorney Tamara Brady said.
But Holmes made a calculated decision to attack the theater, District Attorney George Brauchler contended, spending months amassing an arsenal of weapons and explosives, booby-trapping his apartment and practicing wearing extensive body armor, all the while hiding his actions from friends and family. That automatically eliminates the death penalty for failed neuroscientist, who blamed his calculated murders of 12 people on mental illness.
Holmes had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and when the jury declared his guilt he showed no reaction. Dave Hoover, the uncle of 18-year-old victim AJ Boik, says they all will still have hurt in their lives tomorrow but they will also have love. Holmes, who looked straight-laced in a gray oxford shirt, and slicked back hair, didn’t react as he learned that news that he had avoided death row. If they can’t all agree on a sentence, Holmes would be sentenced to life.
Defense attorneys objected that the gruesome images taken immediately after the massacre would be prejudicial.
Jurors spent 15 weeks hearing evidence in the case against the former neuroscience doctoral student whom prosecutors argued was upset about the failures of his personal and educational life. But Judge Carlos Samour, Jr. allowed it and said jurors would only have 50 minutes to watch the tape.
They recalled sometimes amusing stories about their family members, but many also described how they or their relatives have struggled with depression, PTSD and nightmares since the shooting.
Advertisement
Holmes said that during his childhood he was terrified by “nail ghosts” that hammered on the walls at night, adding that he would see shadows and flickers, which would fight each other with weapons. Victims’ family members delivered heart-wrenching recollections of loved ones lost and missed.
