James Holmes Charged With 24 Counts of Murder

Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes was formally charged Monday with 24 counts of murder, 116 counts of attempted murder as well as an explosives charge and unlawful use of a delay weapon in his rampage during a midnight showing of Batman The Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora Colorado theater.

You have to wonder if this is in any way, related to the Connecticut school shooting in which Adam Lanza killed 26 people, 20 of them children at Sandy Hook Elementary.

While cameras were allowed in Holmes' first court appearance a week ago, District Chief Judge William Sylvester decided not to allow still cameras or video cameras into the courtroom. Sylvester made the ruling stating that media coverage directly from the court would interfere with Holmes's right to a fair trial. Of course there are many who would believe in cases like this when a perpetrator is caught red handed, there should be no trial, but we aren't quite to that point yet.

Why Holmes was charged with 24 formal counts of murder, 2 for each of the 12 people he killed, and 116 counts of attempted murder, 2 for each of the 58 people he injured, is not quite clear in any news reports I can find.

Prosecutors have not decided whether they will seek the death penalty yet, but that will be decided after they have a chance to talk to the victims families.

Check out the links to the stories I've covered in this video below.

Colorado Shooting Suspect Formally Charged With Murder:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/...

TMZ James Holmes Charged with 142 Counts:
http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/30/james-h...

http://youtu.be/WXO6X6TB3Ws

• Category

  News & Politics

[ezHealthyDiet]

When watching NBC news tonight with Brian Williams it was explained that Holmes was charged with first degree murder and aggravated murder or some such wording. One is a charge for the murder and one is a charge for the extenuating circumstances and the brutality of the murder, thus the 24 murder charges instead of 12.

[jcolegrove713]

The tmz article was taken down.

[ezHealthyDiet]

It still seems to be there for me.

[Howie Likey]

Is anyone aware of any circumstances where someone is slapped with double charges? I've never heard of that..

[ezHealthyDiet]

Yes, that is strange and I couldn't find any articles that shed any light on that at all.

[LikeASumbuddyy]

Don't give him a death penalty -.- That's the easy way out. Torture the fuck out of them in jail for the REST of his life.

[Howie Likey]

I found this at FoxNews:

"James Holmes was charged with 24 counts of murder, two each for the 12 people killed, and 116 counts of attempted murder, two each for the 58 injured. For the murder charges, one count included murder with deliberation, the other murder with extreme indifference. Both carry a maximum death penalty upon conviction."

[Susan Kohistany]

its 2 counts per person murdered. He killed 12 so it's 24 charges. I dont know why.

[Dawnatello Morgan]

They didn't actually catch him shooting people they just caught him by his car afterwards how do they know for a fact he was the one under that swat gear!