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 "Had he not been inflicted with the disease that attacked his
brain, he never would have dyed his hair orange, he never would have
purchased all of those guns and all of that ammunition, and this
heartbreaking tragedy would never have occurred," defense attorney
Tamara Brady told the jury
Lead prosecutor George Brauchler wrapped up closing arguments in the
trial's penalty phase, saying nobody in their right mind could plan
the slaughter of a theater full of people.
"And we should take comfort in that. But not having the same brain
that we have does not protect you from the ramifications of those
decisions," Brauchler said.
"He made a decision to massacre and he did. Twelve dead from the
community. Can anything outweigh that? No. No."
For the defense, Brady said no one could turn back time, bring back
the dead, or heal the wounds of those injured when Holmes killed 12
people and wounded 70 at a midnight screening of a Batman film.
"Nothing can erase July 20, 2012," she said.
The jury of nine women and three men has already found the
27-year-old former neuroscience graduate student guilty on all 165
counts relating to the mass shooting inside the Century 16 cinema in
the Denver suburb of Aurora.
They have also determined that aggravating factors were proved which
could justify the death penalty unless the defense can persuade them
that mitigating factors are more important.
Since they rejected his insanity plea, Brady said, there was no way
Holmes could now be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
"That's over. That's off the table. You have declared him guilty,
you have declared him responsible, and you have declared that he
will be punished. And he will be punished. It's just which
punishment he gets," she said.
Brauchler reminded the jurors that they have already found Holmes
committed his killings in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved
manner. The victims were trapped in the darkness, surrounded by
screams of pain and fear.
"If you close your eyes you can picture it all," the prosecutor
said. "There was nothing they could do about it. And he saw to
that."
'YOU GIVE THE WORD'
After Brauchler finished his closing argument, the panel began
deliberating. If the jurors vote unanimously that mitigating factors
outweigh aggravating ones, Holmes will get an automatic life
sentence with no chance of parole.
If they do not, the jurors will hear victim impact testimony before
ultimately deliberating again on whether Holmes should be put to
death by lethal injection. For that phase, prosecutors have said
they would expect to call 15 victims to testify.
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If the jury does not reach a verdict on mitigation before the end of
Thursday, deliberations would resume on Monday after a day off on
Friday.
The side of the public seating reserved for victims and their
relatives in the small, windowless courtroom was packed on Thursday
for closing arguments. It had been mostly empty during the
mitigation phase of the trial in which defense witnesses described
Holmes as a quiet, kind kid who was never in trouble growing up.
Last, they heard from his younger sister, Chris, his statistician
father Bob, and his mother, a nurse, Arlene. They all said they
still loved him, and blamed severe mental illness for what he did.
Brauchler said that testimony had been particularly hard to listen
to, and that it was right to feel sympathy for the parents of a mass
murderer.
"It is impossible to imagine what they are going through, and you
could hear the pain in their voices and you could see it in their
faces. All of that is true," Brauchler said.
"If you feel sympathy ... it must be sympathy for him," he added,
pointing at the gunman. "Not for them. Feel it, talk about it, but
it can't be part of this process."
Brady said jurors had the right and the responsibility to know
everything about someone's life before deciding if they live or die.
She said Holmes was "obviously" mentally ill.
"It was not about notoriety. It was not about hatred. It was about
the delusion," she said.
"You give the word, and this ends with a life sentence."
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting and writing by
Daniel Wallis; Editing by David Gregorio)
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