Jury selection begins in movie theater mass shooting trial
|
Version 0 of 1. The trial of James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and injuring scores more at a Colorado movie theater, finally got underway Tuesday. A series of delays had pushed back the start of jury selection, more than 2 1/2 years after the shooting spree during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012. The trial was postponed multiple times, with some of the delays centering on Holmes’s mental state and the different psychological evaluations that have taken place. Holmes has pleaded not guilty because of insanity, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. In a letter published last month, Holmes’s parents asked that their son not be executed, arguing that he should be institutionalized or imprisoned for the rest of his life. Robert and Arlene Holmes wrote that the death penalty is “morally wrong, especially when the condemned is mentally ill.” In the letter, Holmes’s parents criticized the decision to hold a long trial that would force people “to relive those horrible moments in time.” Colorado has carried out only one execution since 1976. This trial offers something rare: a man accused of carrying out a mass shooting entering a courtroom to face a judge and jury. An FBI study of “active shooter” situations looked at 160 incidents from 2000 and 2013 and named the Aurora shooting as the deadliest during that period. Nearly half the shooters in the study killed themselves. Holmes has been charged with murder, attempted murder, using a deadly weapon for a violent crime and possessing explosive devices. Witnesses have said that the gunman walked through the theater calmly and silently as he fired. Even as the trial officially begins this week, it will take until summer for the courtroom trial proceedings to begin. And the entire process could last through much of the year. Jury selection is expected to last four to five months because of a massive pool of potential jurors. District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. said in November that the court would summon 9,000 people, writing in an order that it would “be much easier to call off prospective jurors who are not needed than it will be to adjust if there are insufficient prospective jurors.” |