Somber final sentencing for theater shooter

Condemning movie massacre gunman James Holmes to 12 life sentences and the maximum 3,318 years in prison for his rampage in a midnight screening of a Batman film, a Colorado judge said on Wednesday that evil and mental illness are not mutually exclusive.

Holmes, a 27-year-old former grad student, received one life term for each person he killed, plus 3,318 years for the attempted murders of those he wounded and for rigging his apartment with explosives.

“The defendant will never be a free man again, ever”, Samour said.

He added: “There is no punishment in this world that could equal… the defendant’s horrific crimes”.

After a months-long murder trial, James Holmes has been sentenced.

“You can’t claim there was no justice because it wasn’t the outcome you expected”, Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. said in an unusual speech from the bench during Holmes’ formal sentencing hearing for the 2012 attack.

“The intention of my sentences is that he spend every single day of the rest of his life in prison, and that he be imprisoned without the possibility of parole”, Samour said from the bench, while Holmes stood before him.

Colorado prisons officials will determine where Holmes will be incarcerated after an evaluation that includes his mental health. His decision to study neuroscience was hinged on the fact that he wanted to discover what was wrong with him, they said.

A jury already has given Holmes 12 life sentences without parole for the people he killed in a mass movie theater attack in 2012.

“If I were in charge, I’d say, this guy has to finish his Ph.D. and do something good for humanity or his death sentence will be reconsidered”.

James Holmes closes his eyes, for a moment, as he appears in court to be formally sentenced, August 25 …

He said “the $64 million question” that still lingered was whether the defendant was afflicted by a mental condition, disease or defect, and if so, to what extent. He also noted the trial was fair, even if some victims were disappointed that Holmes wasn’t sentenced to die. She said that she is “very sorry that this tragedy happened and that everyone has suffered so much”.

He dropped out after a year, by which time, he was well into planning the attack and stockpiling ammunition.

Jurors quickly rejected his insanity defense, convicting him on July 16 of 165 felony counts.

Defence lawyer Daniel King said on Tuesday his client will not appeal against his conviction, avoiding another lengthy trial for the victims.

Holmes’ sentencing hearing was largely symbolic but gave scores of victims an unprecedented chance to vent their feelings to the judge.