Sources say a James Holmes holdout spared him his life yesterday when the unnamed juror balked at subjecting the Colorado theater shooter to the death penalty.
That, according to some critics, amounted to making the years-long ordeal of bringing the mass murderer to justice a veritable waste of time and money.
They may have a good point -- long ago attorneys for the 28-year-old accused gunman had attempted to negotiate a plea deal that would have achieved the same punishment, without the trouble or torment of a trial.
But overzealous prosecutors foolishly rejected it.
“Three years of anguish and $5-million for a verdict that the defense had already agreed to,” one victim’s brother bitterly posted on Twitter last night; echoing the sentiments previously expressed by his mother when the life-without-parole verdict was awarded instead:
“The thought that this monster gets to have visitation from his parents and gets to receive mail and pictures from his very strange girlfriends is very hard to accept,” the disappointed woman said. “But this is what it is.”
Expectations that James Holmes would fry for the crimes his pitilessly perpetrated in 2012 rose unrealistically when the same sentencing jury had unanimously shot down his insanity defense last month, declaring him guilty of capital murder.
However, when it comes down to actually ordering a convicted defendant be put to death, it’s often the case that juries will falter.
Victims seeking eye-for-eye justice and being devastated when it’s thwarted like this is certainly understandable, but the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow for the execution of prisoners who are mentally ill or ‘criminally insane’ anyway.
And if James Eagan Holmes isn’t nuts, then who is?
