AP & Reuters: Judge in Aurora theater shootings won't bar death penalty

[Stefanie Faucher]

http://gazette.com/judge-in-aurora-theater-shootings-wont-bar-death-penalty/article/1542533

Judge in Aurora theater shootings won't bar death penalty
Associated Press
Updated: December 4, 2014 at 4:12 pm

CENTENNIAL — The judge in the Colorado theater shootings case has rejected another attempt by defense lawyers to rule out the death penalty.

Attorneys for defendant James Holmes had asked the judge to bar prosecutors from seeking execution, saying Holmes is mentally ill and putting him to death would be cruel and unusual punishment.

In a ruling released Thursday, the judge said Holmes' mental health is in dispute and would be an issue during the trial. The judge also said the defense didn't make a persuasive argument that executing a mentally ill person was cruel and unusual.

Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 2012 attack on a Denver-area theater.

His trial is scheduled to start Jan. 20.

____

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-shooting-denver-20141204-story.html

Colorado judge rebuffs bid to throw out death penalty for James Holmes
By Keith Coffman
Reuters
December 4, 2014

The judge presiding over the Colorado theater massacre case has rejected a new effort by attorneys for accused gunman James Holmes to have the state's death penalty law declared unconstitutional, court documents showed on Thursday.

Holmes, 26, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of opening fire inside a Denver-area cinema in July 2012 during a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises," killing 12 moviegoers and wounding dozens more.

James Holmes' lawyers ask for new trial judge; judge says no
Ryan Parker

Prosecutors have charged Holmes with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder, and said they would seek the death penalty for the onetime neuroscience doctoral candidate if he is convicted.

Lawyers for Holmes have filed multiple challenges to Colorado's capital punishment statute, all of which have been rejected.

Holmes had a mandatory sanity examination last year, but Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour ordered a second evaluation, siding with prosecutors who argued the first one had been "incomplete and inadequate."

In their latest motion to have the state's death penalty law thrown out, Holmes' lawyers argued that U.S. Supreme Court decisions barring the execution of juveniles and the mentally disabled should extend to defendants who suffer chronic mental illness.

Although the conclusion of neither sanity exam has been made public, Samour appeared to confirm widespread conjecture that the two expert evaluators disagreed on Holmes' condition.

In denying the latest defense motion, Samour noted in his ruling that Holmes' mental state was at the core of the case.

"Because this will be one of the contested issues at trial, it would be inappropriate for the Court to accept the defendant's assertion at face value," he wrote, adding there was no case law that prevented the execution of mentally ill defendants who are not deemed legally insane.

Samour has said 9,000 jury summonses will be sent to county residents this month, and jury selection is set to begin in January.

He has said it will take several months to seat a jury, and that lawyers for both sides should be ready to present their opening statements in late May or early June.

Copyright © 2014, Chicago Tribune



--
Stefanie Faucher
Communications Director
8th Amendment Project
sfau...@8thamendment.org
Mobile 510.393.4549
8thamendment.org