Jury keeps death penalty as option for Colorado movie gunman Holmes

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US | Mon Aug 3, 2015 5:25pm EDT

Jury keeps death penalty as option for Colorado movie gunman Holmes

CENTENNIAL, COLO. | BY KEITH COFFMAN

James Holmes, the Colorado movie massacre gunman, could face the death penalty after jurors found on Monday that aggravating factors including the cruel nature of his crimes counted for more than mitigating ones such as mental illness.

The panel of nine women and three men will now hear from victims of the July 2012 rampage at a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises." They will then deliberate on whether the 27-year-old shooter should be executed by lethal injection.

After cautioning members of the public not to make any emotional outbursts in the small, windowless courtroom near Denver, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour began reading the jurors' forms.

Holmes, who killed 12 people and wounded 70, showed no reaction as the verdicts were delivered, staring straight ahead, hands in pockets. He has been mostly expressionless throughout the trial, which began in late April.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/03/us-usa-shooting-denver-idUSKCN0Q81UZ20150803

[PatrickforO]

1. In this particular case I support death because the guy was caught red handed. We KNOW he did it.

And I don't want to waste $65K/yr in tax dollars to keep him in a cage for the rest of his life.

[tularetom]

2. How many times will we hear about "closure"?

I would not lose a lot of sleep if they decide to fry this asshole, but frying him isn't going to bring any so called closure to the families of his victims.

It's vengeance, and we'd all be better off if we just admitted it instead of trying to soften it up with a lot of euphemisms.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes.