11-24-2013, 12:22 PM
More Legal Delays - a Matter of Life or Death
![[Image: n-JAMES-HOLMES-large.jpg?6]](http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1476003/thumbs/n-JAMES-HOLMES-large.jpg?6)
Will this joker ever get tried?
Snip:
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — The judge in the Colorado theater shootings case on Thursday indefinitely postponed the trial of James Holmes so attorneys can argue whether he should undergo another psychiatric evaluation. Holmes' trial had been set to begin in February.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12 people and injuring 70 at an Aurora theater in July 2012. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and they want Holmes to undergo further evaluation of his sanity.
Holmes' attorneys don't dispute that he committed the shootings, but his plea makes psychiatric evaluations — which assess whether Holmes was sane at the time of the shootings — the most important pieces of evidence.
If doctors who evaluated Holmes concluded he was insane, it would be much harder for prosecutors to persuade a jury to convict him of murder and sentence him to death.
If jurors agreed Holmes was insane, he would be committed indefinitely to the state hospital. He could one day be released If doctors there ever concluded Holmes' sanity had been restored, he could one day be released, but that is considered unlikely.
Colorado law defines insanity as the inability to tell right from wrong because of a mental disease or defect. An evaluation by the state mental hospital is mandatory for anyone who pleads insanity. Holmes underwent his last summer.
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1476003/thumbs...arge.jpg?6
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Sounds like the psychiatric eval Holmes took back in September rendered an "insane" diagnosis. The results haven't been disclosed to the public; that's JMO based on the fact that it's the prosecution, not the defense, who are delaying the trial and asking for more psych eval.
If Holmes is found to be insane by several credible unbiased psychiatrists, I don't think prosecutors will be able to get a death penalty sentence for Holmes from the jury.
What Holmes did was horrendous - he should never be released back into society. If he knew what he was doing at the time of the shooting, even if he was mentally defective, then of course he knew it was wrong. In that case, I don't care if he gets LWOP or the death penalty.
If he was instead truly living some psychotic scenario and didn't realize the reality of what he was doing, he belongs in a max security mental facility for life, IMO. Just don't let him out, ever.
Will this joker ever get tried?
Snip:
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — The judge in the Colorado theater shootings case on Thursday indefinitely postponed the trial of James Holmes so attorneys can argue whether he should undergo another psychiatric evaluation. Holmes' trial had been set to begin in February.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12 people and injuring 70 at an Aurora theater in July 2012. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and they want Holmes to undergo further evaluation of his sanity.
Holmes' attorneys don't dispute that he committed the shootings, but his plea makes psychiatric evaluations — which assess whether Holmes was sane at the time of the shootings — the most important pieces of evidence.
If doctors who evaluated Holmes concluded he was insane, it would be much harder for prosecutors to persuade a jury to convict him of murder and sentence him to death.
If jurors agreed Holmes was insane, he would be committed indefinitely to the state hospital. He could one day be released If doctors there ever concluded Holmes' sanity had been restored, he could one day be released, but that is considered unlikely.
Colorado law defines insanity as the inability to tell right from wrong because of a mental disease or defect. An evaluation by the state mental hospital is mandatory for anyone who pleads insanity. Holmes underwent his last summer.
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1476003/thumbs...arge.jpg?6
=====================================================
Sounds like the psychiatric eval Holmes took back in September rendered an "insane" diagnosis. The results haven't been disclosed to the public; that's JMO based on the fact that it's the prosecution, not the defense, who are delaying the trial and asking for more psych eval.
If Holmes is found to be insane by several credible unbiased psychiatrists, I don't think prosecutors will be able to get a death penalty sentence for Holmes from the jury.
What Holmes did was horrendous - he should never be released back into society. If he knew what he was doing at the time of the shooting, even if he was mentally defective, then of course he knew it was wrong. In that case, I don't care if he gets LWOP or the death penalty.
If he was instead truly living some psychotic scenario and didn't realize the reality of what he was doing, he belongs in a max security mental facility for life, IMO. Just don't let him out, ever.