After less than three hours of weighing whether James Holmes' particular circumstances warrant saving his life, the jury in the trial for the Colorado theater shooter has decided to push ahead with death penalty hearings.
Following the announcement on Monday, the trial will enter a third and final phase, wherein victims injured in the 2012 shooting and relatives of those who were killed will testify before the court about how the crime has impacted them. Afterward, the jury will have to make a final decision, ultimately either sentencing Holmes to death or to life in prison without possibility of parole.
In deliberations following this latest phase of the trial, jurors were asked to consider several "mitigating factors" and whether they outweighed the case's "aggravating factors." Holmes' mitigating factors include his otherwise spotless criminal history, his severe mental illness -- confirmed by experts brought in by both the defense and the prosecution -- and information provided in testimony from the shooter's mother and father, who pleaded for mercy on their son's behalf before the court late last month.
“What we’ve tried to do in America is give jurors guidance as to who should get the death penalty, and who should be spared, so the statute is written with things for jurors to consider,” Denver criminal defense attorney Larry Pozner told the Denver Post in a video explaining how jurors reached the decision.
"In this case, two mitigating factors that the statute has are: ‘Is mental illness a major part of this?’ Mental illness that was not enough to create an insanity defense, but is so significant that his life should be spared. And another mitigator is James Holmes has [no prior criminal record].”
The Associated Press notes that Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. enumerated more than 50 mitigating factors for the jury to consider, including that all experts agree Holmes suffers from schizophrenia, is not faking this mental illness and would not have committed the crime if he had been healthy.
“So these mitigators exist," Pozner explained, "and the jury realizes they exist, but the question is: Do they outweigh the aggravating factor that 12 people died?”
Last month, the same jury found Holmes guilty on all of the 165 charges he faced for opening fire on a Colorado movie theater in 2012, killing 12 people and injuring 70. The defense never denied Holmes committed the crime, and instead sought to convince the jury he was legally insane at the time and incapable of judging right from wrong. A total of 20 doctors confirmed Holmes suffers from schizophrenia, the defense noted during the trial.
Unlike the first stage of the trial, wherein jurors had to determine guilt, the second stage involved much more personal reflection.
"This is an individual decision and not a group decision," Samour told jurors before they retired to deliberate at the end of the trial's second phase. "This decision is not mechanical nor mathematical."
A death penalty sentence in Colorado has to be made via unanimous verdict, meaning just one dissenting juror has the power to sentence Holmes to life in prison.
Moving forward, Pozner warned the third phase will be an emotionally exhausting process that may not necessarily benefit prosecutors, who risk alienating the jury by overwhelming them with heartbreaking testimony.
"Every story is poignant. Every story is painful," he said. "And there comes a point at which the jurors begin to shut down as human beings. There’s just so much sadness you can endure.”
“If the people haven’t cried enough yet, prepare to cry a great deal more,” Pozner added.
Indeed, the heartbreak has clearly already had an impact on spectators. During closing statements in the second phase of the trial, the tense courtroom was punctuated by a moment of drama after a spectator began climbing over seats toward the stand, yelling "He didn’t know! Don’t kill him. Don’t kill him. It’s not his fault!" Bailiffs immediately removed the woman from the room, but she continued yelling from the hallway.
In a subsequent appearance before District Court Judge Carlos Samour Jr., the woman remained unrepentant for the outburst, slamming her fist on the podium as she told him, "It offends me as a human being that other human beings kill each other legally!"
KDVR reports the judge proceeded to hold her in contempt of court, and sentenced her to three weeks in the Arapahoe County Jail.