James Holmes
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler announced today that he will seek the death penalty for James Egan Holmes, accused of the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater that killed 12 people and left 58 more wounded. According to several reports, Holmes’s defense team offered to have him plead guilty in return for a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Given that this guy seems to be at least something of a nutcase, the question we need to ask is: Is the death penalty an appropriate response if Holmes is tried and found guilty?
For those of us who believe in capital punishment for “the worst of the worst,” the answer is a definite Yes.
We say this for several reasons. True, he does seem to be mentally ill. But as we have explained many times, nearly everyone who commits cold-blooded murder against innocents is almost by definition mentally ill. But that doesn’t make him legally insane – basically too delusional to know the difference between right and wrong. Is he paranoid? Almost certainly, but again, that doesn’t make him insane.
The amount of planning that went into this crime, both in terms of stocking up on weapons and ammunition and rigging his apartment with explosives is impressive, and speaks to rationality and coherence in his thought pattern. And the fact that he was willing to plead guilty and go to prison for life rather than take his chances with an insanity plea also shows a recognition on his part that he was sane when he committed the act.
As readers of Law & Disorder know, the main source of our squeamishness with the death penalty is the possibility of executing an innocent person, which we know has happened more than once. But here there is no question of that, so that objection is off the table.
Before seeking the death penalty, D.A. Brauchler spoke with dozens of living victims and survivors of dead ones. And this is apparently what the majority of them wanted. So be it.
What is the point of keeping someone in prison for many decades with no aim of rehabilitation? All that is is a sentence of death by old age. He destroyed countless lives with his selfish, narcissistic act. It is not so much to ask that at least, he give up his own life.
If you want to take a strictly moral stance, our guess is that the world will be a better place without him.
The crime is one of aggravated murder in that multiple victims were attacked with an assault riffle and when it jammed the offender used his sidearm. Before entering the Spider Man movie he had an aim at law enforcement and this is an act of domestic terrorism. A week before this I was at the same opening show in Ohio, I questioned the Lord why them, why these sweet innocent children and not me Lord?
This crime is one that was planned for months if not years. I think this what he expected but if he were to be given life in prison than he needs to be questioned as to his true motivations for committing this crime. His life needs to be torn apart and put together because this act was atypical for the school shooter type. They most likely choose suicide by cop or as in the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting and all others save a few kill themselves. To not give him a death sentence is as insane as commuting the Manson family to life and the reinstating the death penalty in CDC. This is why it should be clear in the modern prison era we seek to deter the act not rehabilitate a mass murder and certainly we must consider the Sandy Hook shooting and execute this offender or we will suffer more innocent lives and all the while let those who are content to a life in prison impose their culture on our society.
The life without parole must be paid by a truth and this has not been considered yet. I think we forget the aim here in what John Douglas and the great Robert Ressler showed us. They had intense stress in the early days and they showed us there is a way of understanding these crimes and getting ahead of them. We do that by interrogation and not assuming he is mentally ill, he may be but he was not doing well in school just to quit and do this, so why? He seemed very intelligent and if anything he is a remorseless psychopath like parents who raised him and helped facilitate this act. They are the ones who need to look back at the events they see as relevant and come forward. The little girl who was holding an ice cream cone brought me to tears instantly. They owe society because in point of fact 12 dead 58 meant to die 100’s devistated and a nation insulted by it’s most prominent members because of the way their son was raised and his life they had or did not have knowledge of. At least Ed Kemper knew it had to stop. When will it if we keep being liberal in prison and sentencing? He has no rights and it upsets me the CDC had offenders who had murdered and would refuse to give DNA. We have allowed that by implying they had some say. They do not if you can not live in society and not kill then society can do what it sees as appropriate because Mr. Manson and those wanting more rights are in fact a failure of the justice system they are a burden to us they are demand from us! I heard it all when the serial killers have a right to confess and hide away DNA because some civil rights clause, you have to remember inmates are not put to Maximum facilities to rehabilitate but to isolate them from us. The broadcasting of the last 20 years is the way we become a lost world. History and God Judge us on the way we assist others, is it justice that the family who went in so excited to see the spider man open with popcorn and smiles leave drenched in their own blood and maybe not at all? The victims have mothers and fathers and good ones who are waiting to see justice, not his life spared. This is what he owes and he had better have some story as to who and what caused him to betray his nation.
And thank you for your kind words, Joe. People like you are the reason we do this website. This is a dialogue and it works because people like yourself – who are interested in the basic questions of why some individuals do the things they do – question everything and add intelligent, thoughtful comments from their own experience and reasoning. I just wish all judges, attorneys and members of the media were as thoughtful as you clearly are. Thanks for sticking with us.
I’m not opposed to the death penalty, but based on his crime, it seems that he hated life, more importantly, his place within it. Killing him would almost be doing him a favor. It’s interesting that with the vast variety of crimes that exist, the punishments are so black & white.
Capital cases are unbearably expensive, particularly famous ones. Furthermore, they are often overturned on technicalities.
I honestly just oppose it. Doesn’t have anything to do with what the person “deserves.” I don’t really believe that on average it has a deterrent effect. For example Rader might have stopped because of the death penalty, but “blue suicide” is a real, documented phenomenon, and many of those killers want to die.
I don’t think it’s good for society to make the State a killer.
I think we expect a certain level of malevolence in the motive before we are willing to execute someone. I don’t think it is unfair to ask for more information before making a decision on the penalty.
I think you make an excellent point, Joe. And the time to ask for that information would be in the sentencing phase if Holmes is found guilty. All the prosecutor’s decision has done is make Holmes eligible for the death penalty. Thanks for leading us to his necessary clarification.
Dear Mr. Olshaker,
I live in Chicago and listen to the Chicago sports radio station. Occasionally the local sports coaches will be on one of the shows. I remember Mike Ditka being on the show. Listeners would call in with questions and he would invariably insult and belittle the callers. It was his shtick and he could get away with it because he was “Da Coach” and the Bears had won a championship. A few years later, Phil Jackson was on the radio. He treated all callers, even those who asked inane questions, with great respect. He had an ability to give answers to idiotic questions that made those questions seem intelligent, Ditka won a championship, Jackson won eleven. I think Jackson’s attitude towards people explains in part why he was so successful. It seems to me your kind words to me are the stuff of Jackson. It makes me want to keep reading your books and your website.