Imagine you go to the movies for Batman’s premiere in nice clothes and shoes but return in a body bag. In 2012, 12 people died and dozens of others were injured in a shooting in Colorado at a Batman premiere. Shooter James Holmes was convicted on Thursday, when jurors quickly rejected defense arguments that he was insane and driven to murder by delusions.
27 year old Holmes had been working toward his Ph.D. in neuroscience. His initial stage of trial took 11 weeks but it did not take more than 2 days to decide he was guilty on all 165 counts. They are due to decide if he will pay with his life, and starting Wednesday, testimonies will be presented to judge whether Holmes should get the death penalty.
3 years after the incident, as Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. read all the charges, each one ending with being “guilty”, Holmes stood numb with his hands in his pockets for almost an hour in a blue shirt and khakis. Parents, Arlene and Robert, holding hands, and after the final count was announced, Arlene, buried her face in Robert’s shoulder.
Holmes had dressed himself head-to-toe in body armor and slipped through the emergency exit of the theater in suburban Denver, the night he imposed this harsh verdict of death on so many innocent people. Among his victims were 2 active-duty servicemen, a single mom, and a man celebrating his 27th birthday. There was also an aspiring broadcaster who had survived a mall shooting in Toronto. Holmes trial was rather different and gave everyone a chance to see a rare kind of mass shooter as most are killed by police, kill themselves or plead guilty.
The prosecutors were determined and made Holmes look like a calculated killer who wanted to ease his failures of school and romance with a mass murder that he believed would increase his personal worth. The prosecutors argued that Holmes was very well aware of what he was doing when he killed strangers in the stadium-style theater. They said he took photos of himself, and also wrote his plans for the shoot-out in a spiral notebook that he sent to his university psychiatrist just hours before the attack, all in a calculated effort to be remembered.
Prosecution has called on more than 200 witnesses over two months and over 70 of them were survivors. They recalled the panic to escape the black-clad gunman. When it is time for the sentence, Holmes’ attorneys will be presenting the mitigating factors that they hope will stop the death penalty. These factors will most likely involve evidence of mental illness and a sympathetic portrayal of his childhood. But, prosecutors will possibly present aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, including the large number of victims.
