Prosecutors in the Aurora movie theater shooting case will not be allowed to show a handful of pictures at trial, the judge overseeing the case ruled Tuesday.
But Judge Carlos Samour denied the bulk of a defense request that could have blocked prosecutors from showing jurors dozens of photos from inside the theater and James Holmes’ car and apartment. Defense attorneys contended that the pictures — many of which show the bodies of the victims and the wounds of the injured — .
“That many of the photographs will be difficult to view,” Samour wrote , “does not render them inadmissible.”
Samour reached a similar conclusion for a video taken inside the crime scene after the shooting. In each instance, Samour wrote that prosecutors must establish a sufficient reason at trial for showing the images and will also have to avoid using pictures that are duplicative.
However, Samour found a few instances where prosecutors would not be allowed to show the pictures they had asked to show.
A photograph of a slain victim’s arm that shows a tattoo with the name of the victim’s children cannot be shown at trial because “there is a real danger that the tattoo will improperly draw the jury’s sympathy,” Samour wrote. Another photo showing, in graphic detail, the injuries to a shooting survivor who had been eviscerated also cannot be shown, Samour concluded.
Samour ruled that a picture showing an unidentified poster on Holmes’ refrigerator “has a higher risk of undue prejudice than the posters on the walls because some jurors may find it offensive.” And Samour found that, while prosecutors can show a picture taken inside Holmes’ car that reveals a skull cover on Holmes’ gearshift, they cannot claim that the gearshift reflects Holmes’ mental state at the time of the shooting.
