Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity Plea from Colorado Theatre Shooter - Judge Accepts

DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado judge is expected to rule on Tuesday on whether to accept a not guilty by reason of insanity plea from accused theater gunman James Holmes, who faces execution if convicted of killing 12 moviegoers last summer.

Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. had delayed ruling on the matter until legal issues surrounding the plea were resolved.

Among those issues was a challenge to the state's insanity-defense law by public defenders. They argued that a provision of the statute that requires a defendant mounting an insanity defense to submit to an examination by court-appointed psychiatrists is unconstitutional.

Compelling a defendant to divulge information that could be used against him at trial and at sentencing violates his right against self-incrimination, they argued. But Samour upheld the law last week, setting the stage for Tuesday's hearing.

Holmes could still decide against entering an insanity plea after the judge advises him of its ramifications.

Holmes, 25, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. He is accused of killing 12 moviegoers and wounding dozens more in a gun rampage inside a suburban Denver cinema during a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" last July.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the former University of Colorado-Denver graduate student if he is convicted.

Public defender Daniel King said in court last month that defense psychiatrists had a complete "diagnosis" on Holmes' mental illness.

Twice since his arrest Holmes has been hospitalized, his lawyers said, once for apparent self-inflicted head injuries and again when he was held in restraints in a psychiatric ward.

At a preliminary hearing in January when he was bound over for trial, investigators testified that Holmes spent months amassing firearms and bombmaking materials in preparation for committing mass murder.

At the same time has was assembling his arsenal, Holmes failed his oral examinations and was told by a university professor that perhaps he was not a good fit for the neuroscience doctoral program, prosecutors said.

Also expected to be decided on at Tuesday's hearing is the issue surrounding a package Holmes sent to a university psychiatrist who treated him that was delivered to a university mailroom two days after the killings.

A notebook included in the package sent to Dr. Lynne Fenton reportedly contained details of the upcoming massacre.

Holmes' lawyers have argued that the package is protected by physician-patient privilege and should not be turned over to prosecutors.

Source... http://news.yahoo.com/judge-colorado-shooting-case-expected-rule-insanity-plea-100612785.html