VICTIMS’ FAMILIES OF THE 2012 AURORA SHOOTING IN COLORADO

On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, United States. A gunman, dressed in protective gear and clothing, set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. The sole suspect is 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, who was arrested outside the cinema minutes later.

In this case of James Holmes, he is guilty beyond any doubt at all. I pray that the courts in Colorado do not allow him to keep appealing his sentence that can drag on for decades. I prefer the justice system in pre-World War II era, where they can execute those guilty in a swift and sure manner. I got this information from Lester Jackson’s article: The Modern Elite Ruling Class Notion of Justice: Cruel and Unusual Punishment of Victims

 

• President William McKinley died on Sept. 14, 1901, eight days after being shot by Leon Czolgosz, who was caught in the act and confessed. On Sept. 23, Czolgosz went on trial and was sentenced to death three days later. He was executed on Oct. 29, 53 days after the crime and 47 after the president’s death.

• Unable to get near his first choice (75), President Herbert Hoover, Giuseppe Zangara settled on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt. On Feb. 15, 1933, Zangara’s errant shot hit Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died on March 6. Caught in the act and having confessed, Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933 after 10 days on death row and 14 days after his victim died.

• On July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield, who died on Sept. 19. Immediately caught, Guiteau boasted of his deed. He was placed on trial for murder on Nov. 14 and found guilty on Jan. 25, 1882. After an appeal rejected May 22 and a denied request for an orchestra to play at his hanging, Guiteau was executed on June 30, 1882, nine months after his victim died.

• William Kemmler murdered his wife on March 29, 1889 and was sentenced to death 45 days later, May 13. He appealed the new execution method, electrocution, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court May 23, 1890. Even with the aid of high-priced lawyers hired by George Westinghouse, his execution occurred August 6, 1890, 15 months after the murder.

• On March 20, 1927, Ruth Snyder, aided by paramour Henry Gray, strangled and bludgeoned her husband to death to collect insurance. In fewer than 10 months, January 12, 1928, they were both executed.

            Another capital case which had a swift and sure execution was that of Rashid al Rashidi, which the execution took place on 1 year and two months from the murder. Check the link below and also remember the victims and their families in your prayer. http://www.globalnews.ca/sports/world/colorado+shooting+suspect+silent+dazed+in+first+hearing+death+penalty+considered/6442683980/story.html

Rage vented, families turn from shooting suspect's court appearance to plan victims' goodbyes

Nicholas Riccardi, P. Solomon Banda : Tuesday, July 24, 2012 3:36 AM 

Madison Sherock, 18, becomes emotional while remembering her friend Alex Teves from the Human X Academy, at a make shift memorial Monday, July 23, 2012, across the street from the Century Theater where the mass shooting occurred last Friday killing 12 and injuring dozens of others, in Aurora, Colo. Teves was killed in the attack. (AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez)

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - With their anger and tears stirred by the sight of suspect James Holmes in a courtroom with red hair and glassy eyes, the families of those killed in the Colorado theatre massacre now must go home to plan their final goodbyes.

Tom Teves' stare bore into Holmes as the 24-year-old former graduate student sat as though in a daze during his court appearance Monday. Teves' son Alex, a physical therapist, dove to protect his girlfriend in the shooting early Friday that killed 12 people.

Another 58 were wounded, including seven who remain in critical condition, when a gunman opened fire at a midnight showing of the new Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in nearby Aurora.

The father called the red-and-orange-haired object of his anger "a coward" for allegedly mowing down defenceless victims, including a girl.

"Somebody had to be in the courtroom to say, 'You know what? You went in with ballistic protection and guns, and you shot a 6-year-old,'" he said. "And then when the cops came, you gave up? You've got the ballistic protection on. Take on some guys who know how to use guns."

That anger spilled out when the world got its first view of Holmes, shuffling into court in a maroon jailhouse jumpsuit. Relatives of the shooting victims leaned forward in their seats. Two women held hands tightly, one shook her head. One woman's eyes welled up with tears. Holmes never said a word.

Robert Blache watched video clips from the 12-minute court appearance with his injured daughter Christina, who was shot in both legs during the rampage, and questioned Holmes' sanity.

"He doesn't look surprised at any of it, but he seemed amazed at what was happening. I'm pretty sure he's not sane," Blache said.

To Dr. Jeffrey Gardere, an assistant professor of behavioural medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Holmes looked like "a person who's been through an emotional maelstrom and therefore might be totally wiped out emotionally."

Gardere said there could be "a psychotic process going on, and we see that being acted out there. Or, there might be some sort of malingering going on. In other words, trying to make himself look worse than he actually is. Or maybe a combination of all of those things."

The hearing was the first confirmation that Holmes' hair was colored. On Friday, there were reports of his hair being red and that he told arresting officers that he was "The Joker." Batman's nemesis in the fictional Gotham has brightly colored hair. Authorities have declined to confirm if Holmes told officers that he was Batman's enemy.

After Holmes was led in handcuffs to the solitary confinement cell where he'd been held since Friday, the families of the dead were left to plan the next steps that they must take.

"We have people from out of town, and some of them need to go home and arrange funerals," said Boulder Police Department information officer Kim Kobel.

Kobel was one of the public information officers assigned to each family to make sure that they will still receive information — and can get their messages to the media — when they are gone.

Holmes, whom police say donned body armour and was armed with an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun and handguns during the attack, was arrested shortly afterward. His home was booby-trapped with a trip wire, explosives and unknown liquids that took a day to disarm.

Police have said Holmes began buying guns at Denver-area stores nearly two months before Friday's shooting and that he received at least 50 packages in four months at his home and at school.

Holmes is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations. Holmes has been assigned a public defender.

His prosecution is likely to be a long road. He won't be formally charged until next Monday, and police expect months of working with behavioural analysts and scrutinizing Holmes' relationships to establish a motive. As for a trial, that could take more than a year, said prosecutor Carol Chambers.

Chambers said her office is considering the death penalty, but that a decision will be made in consultation with the victims' families.

David Sanchez said that would be the appropriate punishment if Holmes is convicted. He said his pregnant daughter escaped without injury but her husband was shot in the head and was in critical condition. His 21-year-old daughter, Katie Medley, was scheduled to deliver her baby at any time.

"When it's your own daughter and she escaped death by mere seconds, I want to say it makes you angry," Sanchez said. He said Medley and her husband, Caleb, 23, waited a year for the release of the movie.

Chambers' office is responsible for the convictions of two of the three people on Colorado's death row. Chambers also is the only state district attorney to seek the death penalty in any case in the last five years, said Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who tracks death penalty cases.

Colorado uses the death penalty relatively sparingly. It has executed just one inmate since capital punishment was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. The state legislature fell one vote short of abolishing the death penalty in 2009.

At a news conference in San Diego, where Holmes' family lives, their lawyer refused to answer questions about him and his relationship to the family. Lisa Damiani said later: "Everyone's concerned" about the possibility of the death penalty.

When asked if they stood by Holmes, Damiani said, "Yes, they do. He's their son."

Weeks before, Holmes quit a 35-student Ph.D. program in neuroscience for reasons that aren't clear. He had earlier taken an intense oral exam that marks the end of the first year but University of Colorado Denver officials would not say if he passed, citing privacy concerns.

University officials have refused to answer questions about Holmes.

"To the best of our knowledge at this point, we think we did everything that we should have done," Donald Elliman, the university chancellor, told reporters.

The judge has issued an order barring lawyers in the case from publicly commenting on matters including evidence, whether a plea deal is in the works or results of any examination or test.

The shooting was the worst in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others.

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Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt and Thomas Peipert in Aurora; Dan Elliott and Colleen Slevin in Denver and Alex Katz in New York contributed to this report.