James Holmes moves closer to death penalty as jurors reject leniency

Jurors weighing James E. Holmes’ fate moved one step closer to sentencing him to death Monday when they decided that the gunman in the Aurora, Colo., mass shooting did not deserve leniency for killing 12 movie-goers and injuring 70 others.

Defense attorneys called a parade of family members, elementary school teachers, former neighbors and childhood friends over the course of four days to try to convince the panel of nine women and three men that the 27-year-old’s life should be spared.

They were unsuccessful. It took the jury just three hours to reach a verdict, and to move the sentencing portion of the trial into its third and final phase. In that phase, jurors will listen to victim impact statements and decide if Holmes deserves death.

Holmes stood still and silent, his hands in the pockets of his khaki trousers, as Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. read the jury’s decision as it pertained to each of the 12 slain victims. It took 10 minutes. Afterward, the judge polled each juror.

There were no audible outbursts in the courtroom.

“I am sensitive to the fact that this case may evoke powerful emotions,” Samour told those present in the courtroom before the jury was led in for the reading of the decision. “I recognize that some visible emotional reactions are inevitable and appropriate.”

But he ordered people to refrain from making any comments or loud emotional outbursts.

Samour carefully leafed through the papers the jury foreman handed over, and tension built in the courtroom as people waited to hear if Holmes would be spared the death penalty.

Then, Samour began reading aloud the question each juror had to answer, for each of the 12 murder counts: “Does the jury unanimously find beyond a reasonable doubt that the mitigating factors that exist do not outweigh the aggravating factors proven by the prosecution?”

Each time, the answer was “yes.” Some people in the courtroom wept quietly as the reading went on.

If the jurors had not agreed unanimously, that would have ended the trial. Holmes would have been sentenced to life in prison without parole. Instead, Samour told the jurors to return to court Tuesday morning to begin the final portion of the trial’s sentencing phase. In that phase, they will hear from victims’ families and decide whether Holmes should live or die.

In the complicated calculus of the death penalty in Colorado, sentencing can be composed of up to three separate mini-trials, complete with opening statements, witnesses, closing arguments and verdicts.

The first mini-trial concerned aggravating factors. Jurors quickly decided that Holmes was guilty of four aggravating factors when he swathed himself in body armor and blasted his way through the Century 16 multiplex during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Among the factors in the July 23 decision were that he killed more than two people and lay in wait to ambush his victims.

The second part of the sentencing process, which just ended Monday, focused on mitigating factors, and whether they might serve as a basis for leniency for the failed neuroscience student.

The most gripping testimony during the mitigation phase came from Holmes’ parents, who had made only limited public statements since the massacre in 2012.

But jurors were not swayed by his mother’s tearful protestations: “He never harmed anyone, ever, ever, until July 20, 2012,” Arlene Rosemary Holmes testified. “I understand he has a serious mental illness. He didn’t ask for that. Schizophrenia chose him. He didn’t choose it.”

Nor were they moved by Robert Holmes’ comments from the witness stand.

Defense attorney Tamara Brady: “Is James Holmes your son?”

Robert Holmes: “Yes he is...”

Brady: “Do you still love him?”

Holmes: “Yes I do.”

Brady: “Why?”

Holmes: “He’s my son. We got along pretty well. He’s an excellent kid.”

Colorado has carried out only one execution since 1976, and its death row has just three inmates, compared to California’s, with 743. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has said he will not sign a death warrant while he is in office.

However, a Quinnipiac University Poll of 1,231 voters released July 27 found that Coloradans favor the death penalty for Holmes 2-1.

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