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July 16, 2015 04:00 PM UTC
21 Comments
My bet is Guilty, and after the penalty phase is complete, Life in prison with no parole — you know, the same result we could have had 2 1/2 years ago without dragging the victims and their families through this whole process, and without spending millions of dollars (with many more to come in the appeals process).
Armchair jurying it myself, I agree. Holmes was sane enough to know that what he was doing was wrong, but mentally ill enough to be denied the death penalty IMHO.
Could have saved ourselves a lot of effort by getting that in a plea deal.
Even if the decision is guilty and the sentence is death it won't be over for decades. Parents and grandparents could be dead before there's an execution and every appeal will make even more of a mockery of the whole concept of "closure" than it is in and of itself.
The deal would have put this all in the rear view mirror with no possibility of parole. Over and done. All of this was completely unnecessary. We know he did it. We know he's mentally ill if not insane by the legal standard. There was no need to go though the motions of proving any of it with a deal offered for a guilty plea and life without parole, removing any possibility of either innocent by reason of insanity or decades worth of appeals. That's pretty much what I wrote when I was called in as part of the initial giant jury pool. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't called back for round two.
I'll put my money on death. Since the jury has to be "death qualified" (i.e. willing to execute someone), I think they'd find it hard not to kill the same person they refused to find insane. While there's always room for cognitive dissonance, if you're going to support the death penalty, as all the jurors do, if not in this case, then when?
You could be right…
The fact that it took more than a day to deliberate means there was at least a bit of dissent, given that the defense admits their client was in fact the one that committed the acts. Sure it's 65 charges to read and vote on, but that shouldn't have taken 12 hours unless there was at least some discussion surrounding his sanity. We'll see how that plays out in sentencing, assuming the jury has found him guilty.
I would think that if they find him not guilty by reason of insanity (I agree. Highly unlikely) or if they consider his mental illness as mitigating and go for life without parole (also unlikely but not entirely impossible) that would be the end of Brauchler's future political career after turning down that deal. The ads would write themselves.
Since it only takes one to vote no on capital punishment, I tend to agree with Phoenix. So 2 out of 3 possible outcomes would end Brauchler's ambitions, glory hound that he is…
We'll know part of the answer in a few minutes.
Ah – I see a possible reason for the delay. There are two sets of charges, plus one standalone.
The first of the two sets is 1st degree murder and attempted murder "after deliberation", while the second of the two sets is 1st degree murder and attempted murder "with extreme indifference". The latter indicates less premeditation than the first. There are 82 charges in each set.
The final charge is possession of an explosive.
Sane Guilty after deliberation.
That verdict would tend to indicate a jury more inclined toward the death penalty IMHO.
Nah, I think your first impression was correct — sane enough to convict, sick enough to be spared the death penalty.
While all the jurors believe in capital punishment, that doesn't automatically mean they will choose it in this case. Besides, it has to be unanimous — that is a very high bar to exceed.
As pointed out in today's Post, the defense has a bit of an advantage in the sentencing phase in that they can introduce more emotional testimony geared toward convincing the jury to spare his life.
Guilty. Up next …. death penalty or not.
Whatever.
He will not be executed in my lifetime.
Yep. Waste of taxpayer dollars.
he'll be executed before we get any sanity and reality in our gun laws.
Nothing (not life in prison, not the death penalty which will probably be found unconstitutional in the next 20 years) will bring his victims back. I'm grateful that my daughter, although she lived in the area and had tickets to opening night, did not go.
Rush Limbaugh had this
up on his website that night, but took it down quickly after Holmes killed his victims. Seems Rushbo thought it might be crass to be pointing a gun,
saying "Pow", the night of the Aurora massacre. My point is that the culture of violence, in which Rush encouraged his listeners / readers to fantasize that they were shooting Democrats, contributed to Holmes' insanity and callousness.
MamaJ, That reminds me of the movie, The Fisher King. I've always thought Rushbo has the same personality and attitude as the talk jock in the film.
Fisher King is one of my favorite Robin Williams movies. I especially love the last scene where the Williams character wakes up. Rushbo exhibits those same behaviors of sociopathic narcissism as the shock jock, or Ted Nugent, or Donald Trump.
When you aim to shock and get more attention by shocking, you have to play the victim and pretend "they're" out to get you, say more and more outrageous things, and you don't care who gets hurt in the process, that's sociopathic narcissism. Fortunately, Rush's little dark corner of the universe is getting smaller all the time.
I've never seen anything to indicate that Rush acknowledged the above tweet, or that it could have had any bearing on any shootings. Who knows….
Going for the death penalty when you can't get the drugs to kill the convicted murderer seems insane to me.
Every time I hit a minivan swallowing pothole, I can think of at least one way the money could have been better spent.
And all to prove Brauchler's vagina is tougher than Carol's. (Hat tip to Michael.)
+25 Ex