James Holmes still may receive the death penalty. The jury voted to keep capital punishment open as a sentencing option for the Colorado movie theater gunman on Monday, according to NBC News. The trail now moves to the third phase, where the same jury will vote whether to sentence Holmes to life in prison or death by lethal injection.
On July 15, Holmes was convicted of murdering 12 people during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora on July 20, 2012. The jury, composed of nine women and three men, found him guilty on 165 charges, which included 24 counts of first-degree murder and 140 more of attempted murder.
Holmes, though never denying that he was behind the shootings, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The insanity plea was the core aspect of the defense's arguments during the trial. Defense attorney Dan King centered in on the suspect's mental health issues, arguing that despite the fact that Holmes pulled the trigger, the instability of his mental state during the incident should not be held against him, according to CNN.
"The evidence is clear that he could not control his thoughts. He could not control his actions, and he could not control his perceptions," the lawyer said.
The prosecution, however, focused on one argument - the fact that Holmes was behind the cold-blooded murders of numerous people. Calling more than 200 witnesses, the prosecution argued that Holmes knew exactly what he was doing and that he deliberately planned the massacre beforehand.
