In his first public outing since the 2012 movie theater massacre in the town of Aurora, Colo., defendant James Holmes sat quietly and leaned back in his chair in court on Tuesday, Jan. 20, hours before the process of choosing a jury for his death penalty trial began.
The jury will decide if Holmes, 27, was sane when he opened fire in the packed movie theater midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20, 2012. Twelve people died, and 70 were injured in the attack. Holmes was arrested in the parking lot of the Century 16 movie theater.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. His parents have begged for a plea deal that would save his life, while many survivors and families of the victims are calling for his death. If convicted of the most serious charges, he could face a death sentence; if not, he would be committed indefinitely to the state mental hospital.
Defense attorneys acknowledge Holmes was the gunman in the attack, but say he was “in the grip of a psychotic episode at the time.”
In court, Holmes had his hair neatly trimmed, was wearing civilian clothes, and had no visible restraints, though the judge had ordered him to be tethered to the floor in a way the public couldn’t see for the trial. His calm, quiet appearance was in contrast to earlier court hearings where he wore jail uniforms and had wild, orange hair with wide eyes.
The parents of Holmes, Robert and Arlene, have said publicly that “we have spent every moment for more than two years thinking about the victims and their families.”
“[James had] never harmed anyone and he had no criminal history,” they said. “We have read postings on the Internet that have likened him to a monster. He is not a monster. He is a human being gripped by a severe mental illness.”
The parents initially wanted life imprisonment without parole for their son in exchange for a guilty plea, but the prosecutor rejected such an offer from the Holmes’ attorneys. They decried the need for a trial, saying it would cause “additional trauma” and “force everyone to relive those horrible moments.”
On Tuesday morning, an unprecedented jury pool of 9,000 people was initially summoned, but later fell to 7,000 after some summons could not be delivered and several candidates connected with the case were excused. The pool will be narrowed to a handful in the weeks ahead to hear the death penalty trial, which could last until October.
Jury selection was set to begin later in the day, with the first group of several hundred people filling out questionnaires to determine if they were fit to oversee the much-anticipated case. Jury selection could last until May or June, when the trial is slated to actually start.
During a hearing in the morning, Judge Carlos Samour, going over a long list of ground rules for the trial, suggested that attorneys might not have to screen all the prospective jurors before they select panelists. The process could stop after a few thousand people are screened, the judge said, if he and both sides agree they have a large enough pool from which to choose a jury.
Samour reportedly called nearly nine times as many prospective jurors as were summoned in the ongoing Boston marathon bombing trial—meaning the county’s 600,000 residents had a nearly one-in-50 chance of being selected to be on jury.
The defense objected to the use of a video during the trial, saying prosecutors gave it to them too late. The video is apparently from the jail where Holmes is being held awaiting trial, but the contents were not made public.
The scope of jury selection and the trial are testaments to the ethical and logistical hurdles of trying the very rare case of a mass shooter who survives his attack.
Under Colorado law, defendants are not legally liable for their actions if their minds are so “diseased” and unable to distinguish right from wrong. Part of the reason the Aurora massacre case has dragged on for so long is the debate over whether that mental standard applies to Holmes.
“The public is going to get an insight into the mind of a killer who says he doesn’t know right from wrong,” said Alan Tuerkheimer, a Chicago-based jury consultant. “It is really rare. It just doesn’t usually come to this.”
(With reports from CNN, Associated Press)
