“The journey I’m on is far from over”, he said.
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After less than a day of deliberations, and in a surprise to many legal experts and those in the packed courtroom, the jurors said they were unable to reach a unanimous decision condemning Holmes to execution.
Another suggested that the jury had been “infiltrated” by a death penalty opponent. “We kind of thought was going to end up”, Eugene Han, who was injured in the theater along with his wife, Kirstin, told Denver station KDVR-TV.
Nevertheless, the doctors said the shooting likely never would have happened were it not for Holmes’s mental illness.
Robert and Sue Sullivan walk out of the Arapahoe County Justice Center after the announcement of the sentence in the James Holmes Aurora theater shooting case in Centennial, Colorado.
“The sentiment for the death penalty is a mile wide and an inch deep”, he said.
Sandy Phillips noted how “thankful” they were for Brauchler’s efforts, and said she hoped “he becomes a Democrat so I can support him”. He said that he had “already apologized to the victims”, but that he was anxious to hear from the jurors, suggesting that it may have come down to a matter of conscience. After the hearing, the District Attorney George Brouchler met with the victims’ families and expressed his disappointment, reports Fox News. Police officers and victims cried and shook their heads in disbelief.
“Because of that decision”, Brauchler said, “the community now knows everything about this case”.
A breakdown of the jury vote has not been released.
Brennan Linsley/AP District Attorney George Brauchler speaks at Friday press conference after Colorado jurors failed to agree on whether James Holmes should be put to death for killing 12 people in the Aurora theater massacre.
Relatives of Holmes who had pleaded for a life sentence also spoke during the trial about what he was like in the years before the shooting. “He has a serious mental illness”, she told the court.
James Holmes was considered a quiet young man before the attack. “And we the jury understand that as a result the court imposes a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole”. The decision brings to a close a three-month trial that featured hundreds of witnesses and thousands of pieces of evidence.
The jurors returned the sentence Friday. As the verdicts were read, defense attorneys could be seen wiping away tears and holding head in hands. The deaths can not be answered by another death, and Holmes would be punished for the remainder of his days under a life sentence, she argued.
In the second sentencing phase, jurors decided the mitigating factors did not outweigh the aggravating factors in the case against convicted gunman which meant the death penalty was still a possibility.
As the jurors filed back into the courtroom just before 5 p.m., the relatively quick deliberation led many court watchers to believe a death sentence was imminent.
This article was originally published at 1:15 p.m.
On July 16, Holmes was found guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder (two counts for each person he killed) after the jury rejected arguments from Holmes’ defense attorneys that he was legally insane when he carried out the attack.
The panel of nine women and three men asked for the 45-minute recording Friday morning.
The judge, however, ruled the jurors could view it, but only once. Instead, they argued for a life sentence because they said he had suffered a psychotic break. Prosecutors refused a pre-trial plea deal that would have kept him behind bars for life, calling Holmes the personification of evil and saying that death was the only appropriate response.
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Jury selection finally began in January, with opening statements following in April, allowing the trial to stretch over much of the year.
