Jury Selection Winding Down In Colorado Theater Shooting
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — Jury selection in the Colorado theater shooting case is winding down as prosecutors and defense attorneys finish individually questioning candidates about their views on the death penalty and mental illness.
Friday is scheduled to be the final day of individual questioning in the jury selection process that began in January. Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. had hoped to find at least 120 prospective jurors who could return for group questioning starting Monday. From there, 12 jurors and 12 alternates will be seated for the trial. Opening statements are scheduled for April 27.
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As of Friday afternoon, Samour had asked at least 113 prospective jurors to return for further questioning.
James Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to killing 12 people and injuring 70 others in the July, 20, 2012, attack on a Denver-area movie theater. If the panel convicts him, it must then decide whether to sentence him to death.
Jury selection began Jan. 20, after court officials summoned an unprecedented 9,000 prospective jurors. After filling out lengthy written questionnaires, hundreds of people were asked to return for individual questioning, where defense attorneys, prosecutors and Samour questioned them, sometimes for hours, about their views and sometimes their personal lives.
Many potential jurors were excused when they said they had already formed an opinion on Holmes' guilt or were morally opposed to the death penalty. Still others were dismissed because of personal connections to the shooting, including people who had friends or family in the packed movie theater that night or who knew some of the hundreds of first responders who rushed to the scene.
On Friday, Samour dismissed a young man who said he believed Holmes entered an insanity plea to "get out of what he did." The man said he often goes to the movie theater where the shooting took place and had posted comments about the attack on Facebook. Samour also excused a man who said he would only impose the death penalty in a murder case.
He asked a professional housekeeper to return despite defense attorneys' concerns that whether she would favor a death sentence.
Samour still hasn't ruled on a defense request to move the trial to another county. Holmes' lawyers say most prospective jurors in Arapahoe County, where the shooting happened, are already biased against him.
By Sadie Gurman, AP Writer
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