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Tag: colorado shooter

  • 3,500 Potential Witnesses in Aurora Shooting Trial

    Nearly one year ago, James Holmes entered a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado with tear gas and guns, killing 12 people and injuring over 60 others. The shooting took place during an opening weekend showing of The Dark Knight Rises, turning crowded summer movie blockbuster premieres into yet another place where Americans are now wary of guns (though at least one Missouri movie theater recently forgot this).

    Now, Holmes’ murder trial is about to begin, and prosecutors seem to have an incredible amount of evidence to demonstrate that he was the shooter. According to an Associated Press report, prosecutors this week filed a motion in court that states they have close to 3,500 potential witnesses that could be called on to testify. In addition, prosecutors estimated they have almost 40,000 pages of evidence that have been filed.

    Holmes will be tried on multiple counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors have turned down a plea offer from Holmes’ defense for the suspect to plead guilty if they agree not to seek the death penalty, stating they do intend to seek the death penalty. Holmes’ lawyer recently requested the suspect’s plea be changed to not guilty by reason of insanity, which the judge in the case is currently deciding whether or not to accept.

  • James Holmes: “Joker” Will Undergo Psychiatric Evaluation

    James Holmes, the 24-year old man who entered a Colorado theater early Friday morning and opened fire–killing 12 and wounding 60–will undergo extensive psychiatric testing over the next several months to determine whether or not he’s competent to stand trial. If doctors find that he was under extreme mental duress during the shootings, he may be able to enter a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea to the first-degree murder charge currently held against him. The news comes just one day after Holmes first appeared in court, during an eleven-minute proceeding in which Holmes appeared dazed, unconcerned, and even drugged.

    But it’s extremely unlikely that the jury will accept such a plea no matter what the doctors find, according to Dr. Keith Ablow. He says that the vast majority of suspects who enter an insanity plea are still taken to mental health facilities once the trial is over, but that juries don’t want to worry about whether or not they will commit the same acts–or worse–once released into the general public; therefore, they don’t take any chances. He writes:

    Contrary to popular belief, defendants who are found not criminally responsible by virtue of a mental illness generally remain on locked psychiatry units for several decades–or for life. This has been the case, for example, for John Hinckley, Jr., the man who, in 1981, shot Ronald Reagan to impress actress Jodi Foster. He has remained an inpatient–with some passes to his family home–at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. for more than 30 years.

    Ablow says Holmes will have to get through several stints of extensive medical testing first, however, and then be evaluated exhaustively by a team of psychiatrists to determine his mindset and to make sure there’s nothing physically wrong with him. It could take up to a year for the case to go to trial, and if the judge decides Holmes is insane, he may decide to forgo the trial altogether in favor of sending him to a mental hospital.

    For now, the victims of his assault and their families will have to seek comfort in one another until a decision is made.