April 1
COLORADO:
Colorado Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for James Holmes
Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes will face the death penalty if
tried and convicted, prosecutors announced today.
Prosecutors from the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office said at a
hearing today in Aurora, Colo., that they will seek execution for Holmes if he
is convicted.
"For James Eagan Holmes, justice is death," District Attorney George Brauchler
said in court today.
A couple of victims' relatives cried. Holmes' parents were also in court. He
looked at them when he came in. After the announcement, Holmes' father nodded
his head and put his arm around his wife.
Brauchler said his office has reached out to 800 victims and that he had
personally spoken with relatives of 60 victims who died and were injured.
Brauchler said he didn't speak to anyone about the decision.
The decision follows several days of wrangling between the defense and
prosecution over Holmes' offer to plead guilty in a bid to avoid the death
penalty.
Despite the announcement, experts predict a long road ahead for Holmes, 25, and
the case.
"When the government tries to kill one of its citizens, you do everything you
can to keep it from happening so I expect the road to trial will be a long
process," former head of the Colorado public defender's office David Kaplan
told ABC News today.
"Hopefully the prosecution will keep an open mind to bring closure that will be
of benefit to everyone," he said.
Holmes' defense attorneys said on Wednesday that he was willing to plead guilty
and spend the rest of his life in prison in order to avoid death row. But
prosecutors rejected the offer and criticized the defense for what prosecutors
called a "calculated" move for attention.
"The circumstances surrounding the filing of the Notice indicate that it was
filed for the intended purpose of generating the predictable pretrial
publicity," prosecutors wrote in their response to the defense's filing.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding at least 58 when gunfire
erupted in an Aurora, Colo., theater last July during a midnight screening of
"The Dark Knight Rises."
Holmes' physical appearance has evolved over his time in prison, visible only
in rare court appearances. He has gone from wild, Joker-like orange and red
hair in his first appearance to his most recent look of brown hair and a shaggy
beard. He has sometimes looked bug-eyed and confused and other times so
despondent and drowsy that people questioned whether he had been drugged.
Family members are divided on whether Holmes should get death, according to
investigative sources. Some are philosophically opposed to the death penalty,
others support it and still another group wants death for Holmes, but they
don't want to endure a trial.
Holmes' trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 5.
************************************
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler wasted little time Monday
morning in announcing he will seek the death penalty against the man accused of
shooting 70 people, killing 12, during a midnight attack at an Aurora, Colo.,
movie theater last summer.
"Justice is death," Brauchler told the court, minutes after the hearing
started.
Brauchler said his office surveyed victims and hundreds of people connected to
the massacre to help make the decision.
"I hope I can be in the room when he dies," said Bryan Beard, whose friend,
Alex Sullivan, was killed in the theater. "If you cause death upon somebody, I
believe the only justice is death."
(source: Associated Press)
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