The jury in the trial of James Holmes, convicted of killing 12 people and wounding 70 others in a terrifying Colorado movie theater shooting in July 2012, could not reach a unanimous final sentencing verdict on any of the various counts of murder, according to Yahoo! News, which means the court will impose a life imprisonment sentence. He does not have the possibility of parole.
The jury's decision was announced when court was called back into session at 7p.m. Friday, according to Des Moines, Iowa's KCCI News.
The jury deliberated for almost seven hours since Thursday to reach its decision. Holmes, 27, was convicted of 24 counts of first-degree murder, two counts for each life he took that summer day.
During its deliberation, the jury asked to see a 45-minute video of the crime scene that was taken by police following the shooting. Over the objections of Holmes' lawyers, the judge ruled that the jury could use a television and DVD player for 50 minutes to view the video just once. The video was shown during the trial. It is essentially a tour of the crime scene that shows bodies lying on the floor among the bullets and popcorn. The video was shown only inside the courtroom, and has not been made public, KCCI reported.
Attorneys for Holmes argued that he is mentally ill. Since Holmes was arrested with bright orange hair dyed to look like The Joker and behaved in an odd manner throughout his trial, the defense seems plausible. His lawyers have argued that the deaths Holmes caused can't be erased by his own death, and have pleaded for him to receive a life sentence instead.
The Holmes trial began last April and lasted for 60 days. More than 300 witnesses took the stand and almost 2,700 pieces of evidence were entered into court records. The insanity plea lodged by defense lawyers was rejected by the jury.
Holmes had no criminal record when he walked into "The Dark Knight Rises" and opened fire. He did not take the stand in his own defense at the trial, according to MSN.
