Colorado Batman shooter James Holmes escapes the death penalty

“I am deeply, deeply sorry – that isn’t even the word”. They could have opted to give Holmes the death penalty.

Testimony during the trial laid bare Mr. Holmes’s history of mental illness.

The disagreement in the jury means that he will receive an automatic life sentence without parole.

Prosecutor George Brauchler said: “Not having the same brain that we have does not protect you from the ramifications of those decisions”. “There was no other concern”, said juror 17.

The families have become a tight knit group since the attack three years ago.

Prosecutors said that the shooter deserved the death penalty because he had “meticulously” planned the attack, listening to loud techno while attacking victims to prevent himself from hearing them scream. Some believe Holmes’ execution would help ease their pain, while others worry about the decades of appeals that typically come with the death penalty. However, Tom Teves, whose son 24-year-old Alex was killed, said about half of the dead victims’ relatives, including him and his wife Caren, opposed the decision to execute the 27-year old gunman.

Many people were shocked by Holmes’ sentence, including the families of the victims.

Brauchler told a news conference after the verdict that he was disappointed and had failed.

But the juror was adamant that Holmes not be sentenced to death because she deemed him mentally ill, according to her fellow panelist.

As the verdict was read out bearded Holmes, dressed in khaki coloured chinos and and matching shirt, stood with his hands in his pockets showing no sign of emotion. She sagged into him and he held her up.

Prior to calling the jury to the courtroom, the judge called on courtroom observers to use restraint and not have emotional outbursts upon the reading of the verdict.

Jurors in the Colorado theater shooting have been dismissed after failing to agree on a sentence for gunman James Holmes.

Juror 17 said some of the images shown during the months long trial will be hard to forget. Holmes, who is also found convicted on the charges of 24 counts of first degree murder, didn’t plead guilty to the charges in the 2012 movie massacre. That automatically eliminates the death penalty for Holmes, who blamed his calculated killings of 12 people on mental illness.

This concludes the three-year legal process following the shooting. The sentence will be announced at 5 p.m.

The defense then conceded his guilt, but insisted during the sentencing phase that his crimes were caused by the psychotic breakdown of a mentally ill young man, reducing his moral culpability and making a life sentence appropriate. “And we the jury understand that as a result the court imposes a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole”. One of the jurors requested another viewing of a piece of evidence, a gory 45-minute crime scene video, possibly in an attempt to sway the dissenter.

In a case that saw every bullet hole in the Century 16 movie theater examined, that heard psychiatrists detail hundreds of pages of mental health evaluations, the nine women and three men were uncannily quick, never needing more than a full business day to render their four decisions in the case.