DENVER (Reuters) - Lawyers for accused
Colorado theater gunman James Holmes said on Tuesday two homicide
detectives may have perjured themselves when they denied leaking to Fox
News details of his plan for the massacre, court documents show.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty for the
California native if he is convicted of the July 2012 rampage in
Aurora, which killed 12 moviegoers and wounded 70 others during a
midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."
Holmes' lawyers concede he was the sole gunman, but say that the
26-year-old graduate student from the University of Colorado was in
the throes of a psychotic episode at the time. He has pleaded not
guilty by reason of insanity.
The defense team wants the judge to order a probe to trace the
source of the Fox News story, which ran five days after the
shooting. Citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, it said
Holmes sent a psychiatrist a notebook detailing his plans.
Holmes' lawyers said in Tuesday's motion that since the few officers
who knew of the notebook had all denied under oath being responsible
for the leak, those who may have committed perjury included "two
homicide detectives who played significant roles in the
investigation of this case."
"The fact that a law enforcement official lied under oath in a death
penalty case about a key piece of evidence is an incredibly serious
matter," the defense lawyers wrote.
They noted that Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour
described the notebook as a "critical" piece of evidence.
The public defenders had previously sought a court order to compel
Fox News reporter Jana Winter to reveal her sources, but the New
York Court of Appeals ultimately sided with the journalist, and the
U.S Supreme Court declined to review the case.
Prosecutors have denounced the allegations of a leak by law
enforcement officials as "baseless," and have opposed the appeals by
the defense for a special prosecutor to investigate.
Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in December.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Jeremy
Laurence)
