James Holmes lawyers will argue he is INSANE to save him from death as defense opens in Dark Knight massacre trial

  • Defense case in Colorado theater shooting trial opened on Thursday
  • James Holmes, 27, faces execution for shooting dead 12 people in 2012
  • Prosecutors spent 2 months presenting emotional, gruesome testimony
  • Holmes's lawyers will take 2 weeks to outline clinical evidence of insanity
  • They plan to argue he was legally insane at the time of the shooting 

By Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 16:57 EST, 25 June 2015 | Updated: 18:38 EST, 25 June 2015

James Holmes will be portrayed as insane by his lawyers in a desperate bid to save him from execution.

The 27-year-old faces the death penalty shooting dead 12 people in a packed midnight premiere of the Dark Knight in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012.

After two months of often-gruesome and emotional testimony from prosecution witnesses, the defense case opened on Thursday - and his attorneys plan to take a more clinical approach. 

Holmes' team plans to present a case that focuses tightly on mental illness in an attempt to prove to jurors that he was legally insane when he opened fire on the movie theater three years ago.

The evidence, they estimate, will take just two weeks to run through. 

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO 

Insane? James Holmes will be presented as legally insane by his lawyers in a bid to save him from execution

Insane? James Holmes will be presented as legally insane by his lawyers in a bid to save him from execution

Even if Holmes is found guilty of murder, legal experts say, the coming days may be the attorneys best chance to convince jurors that he should not be executed if he is convicted.

Prosecutors preempted the insanity line, and called two court-appointed doctors who examined Holmes in the months and years after the shooting. Their experts found that, although he was mentally ill, he could tell right from wrong and met Colorado's definition of legal sanity.

The defense says Holmes suffers from schizophrenia and was in the grips of a psychotic episode when he slipped into the theater and started firing. They plan to call at least two of their own mental health experts who also analyzed Holmes. 

Holmes' team will also recycle prosecutors' use of his spiral notebooks as proof of his methodical plans to commit mass murder.

Though the notes describe killings, the defense attorneys will focus instead on its less coherent pages, including a section titled 'Crazy Thoughts' which ends with the word 'Why?' scribbled hundreds of times over eight pages in ever-larger writing.  

Defense attorney Daniel King called the notebook 'a whole lot of crazy'.

Conflicting evidence: Prosecutors presented evidence from Dr Lynne Fenton, the psychiatrist who treated Holmes before the massacre, who said he was unhinged but able to differentiate between right and wrong

Conflicting evidence: Prosecutors presented evidence from Dr Lynne Fenton, the psychiatrist who treated Holmes before the massacre, who said he was unhinged but able to differentiate between right and wrong

Dismissed: Three jurors were dismissed from the jury panel last week after Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour determined they were tainted by either hearing or talking about a prosecutor's message on Twitter. Another was dismissed this week after her brother-in-law was shot in an armed robbery

Dismissed: Three jurors were dismissed from the jury panel last week after Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour determined they were tainted by either hearing or talking about a prosecutor's message on Twitter. Another was dismissed this week after her brother-in-law was shot in an armed robbery

King may also play jailhouse video showing Holmes running head first into walls and falling backward off his bed in a November 2012 episode that sent him to a hospital. 

Around the same time, Holmes was found naked, licking walls and eating lunch meat between two paper cups. He sucked his thumb and cried. Later, King said, Holmes ranted about seeing shadows.

King said in opening statements: 'Look at the video, and you tell me if he would do this for notoriety.' 

The team is expected to finish their case in less than a quarter of the time the defense took to outline evidence. 

The short time frame is partly because defense attorneys don't have to call scores of victims each with emotional testimony. Their witness' testimony is expected to be highly contentious, with lots of cross-examination by prosecutors. 

 

 

Comments (9)

Share what you think

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now