This will only make him more convinced he did the right thing

Cheryl Eddy writes at True Crime about the fan mail being sent to Aurora theater massacre perpetrator James Holmes:

It’s probably not surprising, given how many notorious inmates get hitched when they’re behind bars, but it’s definitely stomach-turning: Colorado theater shooter James Holmes, recently sentenced to life without parole, gets tons of fan mail.

According to the Associated Press, prosecutors shared 200 pages of mail sent to Holmes before and during his trial for murdering 12 people (and wounding dozens more). The letters were mostly from women, some of whom apparently have deep pockets:

Holmes has always had a following of supporters, mostly young women, who attended his court appearances and created websites devoted to his case. He received more than $4,600 from people not believed to be family members, the Arapahoe County sheriff’s office said.

In letters, some women professed their love for him. Others offered prayers or scribbled poems. Still others wrote pages and pages detailing the mundanities of their personal lives. Sheriff’s deputies rejected some of the mail because it contained lipstick marks or perfume.

Many also sent photos of themselves, which Holmes’ taped to his cell walls, sheriff’s deputies testified during the trial.

The families of the victims are, unsurprisingly, disgusted by the Holmes fan club; the AP likens his followers to the people (again, mostly women) who idolize Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

One pen pal even referenced the garishly dyed coiffure Holmes sported when he committed his crime:

One Holmes supporter in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote that she was “knitting a scarf the color of your hair.”

Aurora theater massacre perp gets life in prison

James Holmes gets life in prison for the Aurora theater massacre.

The photo above is juror number 17, telling Marshall Zelinger of 7 News that their were 9 members of the jury who were for the death penalty for Holmes, 2 who were waivering, and 1 who was solidly against it.

That nasty First Amendment

You want to know one place in America where freedom of speech is not allowed? It is in the jury hearing the James Holmes murder trial in Aurora, Colorado. Three females were kicked off the jury today because they were overheard discussing the case. Judge

Samour tells jurors every day that they are not to read news reports or social media posts about the case, talk about the case with fellow jurors or begin deliberating on a verdict before all the evidence is presented.

How realistic is it in 2015 to expect females not to be curious about what people are saying about the trial? To keep their mouths shut? Information is instantly available to anyone in 2015. These jury rules were made in a time when that was not the case. People know that they don''t have to limit themselves to listening to only one or two sources of information.
Read more here.

In related news, Judge Samour also scolded prosecutor George Brauchler for tweeting during the trial!
Read about that here.

It's all about self worth!

Ben Markus writes at Colorado Public Radio that

The gunman behind the Aurora theater shooting told a court-appointed psychiatrist that he knew what he was doing was legally wrong, and that the killings increased his sense of self-worth.

James Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the July 20, 2012, Aurora theater attack that killed 12 people and injured 70. His comments were heard Monday, in the third day of a court presentation of 22 hours of psychiatric evaluation by Dr. William Reid.

On Monday, about halfway through the recording being shown to jurors, Holmes can be heard to make a startling admission.

"I knew it was legally wrong," he told Reid, who has already testified that in his medical opinion, Holmes was sane at the time of the attack -- that Holmes knew the difference between right and wrong.

The video is likely the only chance jurors will get to hear from Holmes himself. In it, he also said he viewed the attack as a mission "to go to the theater and shoot as many people as possible."

Holmes also told Reid that he believed killing others increased his self-worth.

"Anything that they would have done or, like, pursued, gets canceled out and given to me," he told Reid.

Holmes assigned one point for each person, so that by killing 12 people he added 12 points to his self-worth. The injured didn’t count. And he said he regretted that people were wounded.

In the video, Reid asked Holmes to explain the logic behind that belief, but Holmes could not.

"It’s not based on logic, it just is the way it is," Holmes replied.

..."He didn’t just go out and just buy things willy nilly, he says and appears to have researched it, researched what was effective and what wasn’t," Reid said. One of his purchases was, "A particular kind of pistol which was heavy enough to have stopping power yet light enough to not have a great deal of recoil."

On autopilot

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) – James Holmes lingered outside a suburban Denver movie theater for a moment or two, thinking someone at a mental health hotline might talk him out of killing people he didn’t know, or that the FBI might swoop in and stop him, he told a psychiatrist last year.

But his phone call to the crisis line was disconnected after 9 seconds, before anyone answered, he says in the videotaped conversation with the psychiatrist, which was shown to jurors in his murder trial Tuesday. The FBI never showed up, despite Holmes’ suspicions that agents were watching him.

So after hesitating a few seconds more, he walked inside, tossed a tear-gas canister and opened fire, he says on the video. He says he remembers hearing one scream and seeing one victim out of the 12 who were killed and 70 who were injured, but little else.

“At that point, I’m on autopilot,” he says in an eerily flat and expressionless voice.

Jurors are watching nearly 22 hours of Holmes’ videotaped conversations with Dr. William Reid, who conducted a court-ordered evaluation of Holmes after he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the July 20, 2012, massacre.

...In the video shown Tuesday, Holmes tells Reid that he called the hotline on his cellphone while he was outside the theater, halfway through, as he put it, “gearing up” for the attack – putting on body armor and gathering up his assault rifle, shotgun and handgun.

Why did he call?, Reid asks.

“Just one last chance to see if I should turn back,” Holmes answers, but he doubted he could have been talked out of it.

What did he feel when the phone call was disconnected?

“Just that it was really going to happen,” he says.

...Reid prods Holmes to recall what he felt, saw and heard inside the theater, but Holmes gives only clipped answers.

He couldn’t see well because of scratches on his gas mask. He doesn’t remember hearing much, even the techno music he was blasting through his ear buds at full volume.

“I was kind of blocked out,” he says.

He fired all six of his shotgun shells, he says, and then began firing his rifle at seats. What about the people?, Reid asks.

“The people are hiding behind the seats,” Holmes says.

Holmes kept firing until his rifle jammed. After he couldn’t fit a different magazine into the weapon, he walked outside, he says. He was arrested there moments later.

...Holmes also tells Reid on the videotape that he wishes that Dr. Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist who treated him before the shootings, had placed him under a 72-hour police psychiatric hold.

“I kind of regret that she didn’t lock me up so everything could have been avoided,” Holmes says.

But Holmes also tells Reid that he was careful not to let Fenton know he was planning the theater attack.

By Sadie Gurman, AP Writer

Associated Press writer Dan Elliott contributed from Denver.
Read more here.

Why didn't the psychiatrist seek to lock this loon up?

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We all need God's mercy

"Everybody needs mercy! We all sin. We all suffer. We all suffer because of sin. We all sin to alleviate our suffering." So writes Robert Gelinas, pastor of Colorado Community Church in Aurora, Colorado. After the senseless killings and woundings at the Century 16 Movie Theater in Aurora, Robert prayed for God's mercy.