Aurora Theater Shooter Sentenced to Life In Prison, Spared Death Penalty

The verdicts took 11 minutes to read.

But “today what was hard for me was accepting (the sentences) for the others” who wanted to see Holmes die, she said. “It’s a devastating result no matter what”.

“I’m as disappointed for them as they are today”, he said. The jury rejected the claim and the lawyers responded that it would be inhumane to execute a man who suffered from a mental condition.

The American gunman who stormed a Batman movie premiere and killed 12 cinemagoers escaped the death penalty Friday, August 7 but will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The families of victims of the Colorado mass murderer James Holmes expressed their anger at the “gaping wound” he had caused to their lives after he was spared the death penalty.

“We had gone over several times how firmly we stood in our position, so we, at that point, decided to end the deliberations because we were firmly entrenched in our positions for the most part”, she said.

Speaking after the verdicts, District Attorney George Brauchler read aloud the victims’ names a final time before dozens of television cameras and almost 100 journalists. They hadn’t known he was getting therapy, and thought perhaps he was depressed, or was suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, Robert Holmes said. He also said the jury did “a hell of a job”. Police officers and victims cried and shook their heads in disbelief.

“Because of that decision”, Brauchler said, “the community now knows everything about this case”.

A breakdown of the jury vote has not been released.

Families of the 12 victims had varying opinions about the verdict including the parents of Jessica Ghawi who, at first, were against the death penalty.

Samour thanked jurors for their service during the trial which lasted over three months.

The jurors returned the sentence Friday. The same jury earlier rejected Holmes’ insanity defense, finding him capable of understanding right from wrong when he carried out the 2012 assault, which injured 70 people. According to juror 17, nine of the jurors were strongly in favor of sentencing Holmes to death.

For three years, the mass murders at a Colorado movie theater has carried a heavy emotional weight in Rancho Peñasquitos, where convicted shooter James Holmes grew up.

But finally they were unable to agree a sentence.

As the courtroom waited for Judge Carlos Samour to review the verdict, only the sound of him turning pages could be heard. They talked about giving certain details “the weight of life”.

The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon.

In the closing hours of deliberations the jury reviewed a 45-minute, silent video of the gruesome crime scene – a theater auditorium littered with bullets, bodies, popcorn, blood and gore. This “may well be the most serious and important decision you ever have to make”. he said, and insisted that they each use “their own individual reasoned moral judgment” in deciding Holmes’s fate.

Holmes’ defense attorneys blamed the attack on his client’s schizophrenia and psychotic delusions.

Death sentences must be unanimous in Colorado. Holmes would have been only the second person to receive capital punishment in the state since it was reinstated in 1975.