CENTENNIAL, Colo. Lawyers trying to avoid the death penalty for Colorado movie massacre gunman James...

1. Colorado movie gunman's lawyers object to 'upsetting'
testimony | Reuters
CENTENNIAL, Colo. Lawyers trying to avoid the death penalty for Colorado movie massacre
gunman James Holmes objected on Monday when prosecutors tried to bring testimony the defense
called "upsetting" from investigators at the bloody crime scene in July 2012.
Public defenders for Holmes, 27, argued that the former graduate student's right to a fair trial would
be jeopardized by lurid details of the scene where 12 people were killed and 70 wounded at the
packed midnight premiere of a Batman film in a Denver area multiplex. Prosecutor Rich Orman
responded with scorn.
"The upsetting thing is that the defendant went into a theater of innocent people and shot! The
upsetting thing is the defendant shot a little girl," Orman said, his voice shaking with emotion.
"The upsetting thing is the crime."
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Holmes, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
Beginning the third week of the trial that is expected to last four to five months, attorneys for the
former neuroscience graduate student objected to prosecution plans to call a fingerprint expert who
examined the bodies.
The defense lawyers said the testimony was likely to be "upsetting" and "unnecessary" because it
follows multiple other law enforcement witnesses
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/law.html who described finding the victims inside
theater nine of the Century 16 cinema in Aurora.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour ruled that the prosecution can present
evidence on identifying the dead, as long as it does not belabor the point. He said he would deal with
defense objections on a question-by-question basis.
The jury also heard from an FBI special agent who showed photographs of Holmes' bomb- and
booby-trapped apartment.
Among the images was a calendar hanging on his bedroom wall
http://community.openscholar.harvard.edu/people/co4nsola3t with the date of the massacre, July 20,
2012, circled next to a number 1 and the mathematical symbol for infinity.
His public defenders say Holmes suffers from schizophrenia and was not in control of his actions
when he plotted and carried out the attack. They concede that he opened fire in the theater, and say
only his state of mind should be in question.
They say the jury could be prejudiced against Holmes if the prosecution persists in its strategy of
calling crime scene technicians to give detailed testimony, interspersed with heart-wrenching
accounts from wounded survivors.

2. The prosecution says Holmes carried out the massacre because he had lost his girlfriend and career,
and had a "longstanding hatred of mankind."
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by David Gregorio)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/11/us-usa-shooting-denver-idUSKBN0NW21J20150511