The defense in the James Holmes theater shooting case has filed yet another motion claiming he cannot get a fair trial in Arapahoe County. This is not true, but we won’t go into the reasons again here today. No, what caught our eye was the contention that the media have treated Holmes’ insanity plea as “merely a ploy to avoid responsibility.”
Maybe some have, but we haven’t. What we have said and that the judge was correct to order a second psychiatric evaluation of Holmes.
The defense objected to that second evaluation, too, by the way.
Just because the process for determining insanity in Colorado unfairly favors the defense hardly means a defendant who chooses that avenue is trying to avoid responsibility. He may or may not be. Given the possibility of a death penalty, it was, in fact, almost inevitable that Holmes would claim to be insane.
The point is, he should have to prove it on a level playing field.
