CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Jurors decided unanimously Thursday that the Colorado theater attack was cruel enough to justify the death penalty for James Holmes. His defense then urged them to spare his life, despite the horrors he caused. ADVERTISING CENTENNIAL, Colo.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Jurors decided unanimously Thursday that the Colorado theater attack was cruel enough to justify the death penalty for James Holmes. His defense then urged them to spare his life, despite the horrors he caused.
Jurors determined that capital punishment is justified because Holmes murdered a large number of victims; caused a grave risk of death to others; committed murder in a heinous, cruel or depraved manner; and laid in wait or ambush.
One factor they said prosecutors did not prove was that Holmes intentionally killed a child, but the other “aggravating factors” ensure that the death penalty remains an option during his sentencing.
Holmes was told to stand for these findings, and remained calm with his hands in his pockets, looking directly at Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. as he read them.
Prosecutors said Holmes wanted to murder as many as he could in the audience of more than 400 people, and killed 12 only because his assault rifle jammed. The defense effectively conceded this, hoping to focus jurors’ attention instead on the “mitigating factors” that make it wrong to execute him.
The bullets Holmes sprayed killed 12 people and wounded 58. Twelve others were injured in the chaos.
Prosecutor Rich Orman argued that Holmes deliberately killed his victims, including 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan who “had four gunshot wounds to her little body.” But jurors didn’t find the intent that would qualify the child’s death as another “aggravating factor.”
