Defense lawyers say prosecutor in theater massacre is seeking death penalty for political reasons
As jury selection begins in the trial of James Holmes, the accused shooter in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre, some defense lawyers accuse the prosecutor of seeking the death penalty for political reasons.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler refused a plea deal that would have put James Holmes in a prison mental institution for life without the possibility of parole. According to the Associated Press.
“That insistence upon the death penalty certainly seems politically motivated,” Dan Recht, a Denver defense lawyer, told the AP. “[Brauchler] may well believe that his insistence on trying to execute Holmes would shore up his conservative base.”
Brauchler, a former Army JAG who was elected as DA in 2012, has been courted by Colorado’s Republican Party. According to the article, he once criticized Gov. John Hickenlooper heavily for suspending the death penalty of a murder defendant convicted in Arapahoe County. Though Republican operatives encouraged him to run against Hickenlooper in 2014, the article says, Brauchler decided against it so he could focus on the Holmes trial, which he is working on actively.
According to the AP, Brauchler says he’s focused on justice, not toughness. Last year, his office permitted another murder defendant to plead not guilty by reason of insanity and be committed.
Jury selection alone in the high-profile trial is expected to take months. The county has called 9,000 potential jurors, though 2,000 of those summonses were returned as undeliverable.
Attorneys for Holmes and Holmes’ parents argue that he should be acquitted because he is mentally ill, but the Denver Post has suggested that this will be contested at trial.
Holmes is accused of shooting a movie theater full of people on July 20, 2012, at a late-night showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. Twelve people died, and 70 were wounded.
