[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----UTAH, WYO., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 27



UTAH:

Anti-death penalty group to protest firing squad bill



A group opposed to capital punishment plans to protest outside the Utah State 
Capitol on Tuesday over one lawmaker's plan to resurrect the use of firing 
squads.

The group Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty argues firing squad 
executions are a gruesome relic of the state's Wild West past that create a 
media frenzy around condemned inmates.

Clearfield Republican Rep. Paul Ray says the firing squad, with trained 
marksmen and a restrained inmate, offers a swift, more humane death than lethal 
injection, with less of a risk of complications.

Ray's bill to bring back firing squads has not yet had a committee hearing.

Utah no longer allows inmates to choose death by firing squad but it's still 
available to those who opted for it before the law changed in 2004.

Online: HB 11: http://1.usa.gov/1EnOKDb

(source: Associated Press)








WYOMING:

Lawyers for inmate say fair death-penalty hearing impossible



Lawyers for convicted murderer Dale Wayne Eaton say years of negative publicity 
prompted by improper statements from prosecutors to the media would make it 
impossible for him to get a fair rehearing on whether he deserves the death 
penalty for the murder of a Montana woman.

Eaton was convicted in 2004 of murdering 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of 
Billings, Montana. Eaton's lawyers don't dispute he killed her.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne in November overturned Eaton's 
death penalty, ruling he didn't get an adequate defense and that his legal team 
failed to present detail about his personal history and background to the jury 
as it considered whether to put him to death. Before Johnson's order, Eaton had 
been the only person on death row in Wyoming.

Johnson gave state prosecutors the option of holding a new sentencing hearing 
to allow a jury to decide whether to impose the death penalty against Eaton, or 
sending him to prison for life without parole. Casper District Attorney Michael 
Blonigen recently filed notice that he intends to proceed with a new death 
penalty hearing.

Lawyers for Eaton have asked Johnson to reconsider his order. They say too many 
witnesses have died who could have testified about Eaton's background to try to 
convince a jury that his life had value.

Kimmell vanished in 1988 while driving solo across Wyoming. Fishermen later 
found her body in the North Platte River.

Investigators tied Eaton to the crime in 2002 when DNA evidence taken from 
Kimmell's body linked Eaton to the case while he was in prison on unrelated 
charges. Investigators then unearthed her missing car on his property.

Authorities say Eaton kept Kimmell captive in a rundown compound in Moneta, 
west of Casper, and raped her before killing her.

On Monday, Eaton's legal team filed hundreds of pages of exhibits with Johnson 
showing the extent of press coverage of his state court trial, state appeal and 
subsequent federal appeal. Some of the articles include speculation that he is 
a serial killer responsible for many unsolved homicides.

"The difficulty of providing Mr. Eaton a fair capital sentencing trial free of 
taint from his previous unconstitutional sentencing trial is compounded by 
statements of Wyoming government officials who persist in trying Mr. Eaton in 
the media rather than in a court of law," Eaton's lawyers wrote.

Eaton's lawyers single out Blonigen, who originally prosecuted Eaton in state 
court. Eaton's lawyers say Blonigen made inflammatory comments to the press 
about the case. The lawyers also criticize Wyoming Attorney General Peter 
Michael, who issued a statement after Johnson's order overturning Eaton's death 
sentence saying he disagreed with the judge.

Cheyenne lawyer Terry Harris, one of the lawyers representing Eaton, declined 
comment Monday. An attempt to reach Michael wasn't immediately successful on 
Monday.

Blonigen on Monday said he hadn't seen Eaton's latest filing.

"It's obvious the primary motivation is delay," he said. "But that's the name 
of the game in this sort of litigation right now."

Blonigen said he has followed the rules of professional conduct in speaking 
with the media about the case.

"You have to appreciate that you have to say something when these cases of 
great public interest occur," he said. "We haven't commented on specific 
evidence, or argued the case in the press."

(source: Associated Press)








ARIZONA:

Death Row Inmate Asks To Speed Up Execution ---- Brad Lee Nelson was convicted 
of 1st-degree murder



The Mohave County Superior Court ordered a death row inmate to complete a 
mental health evaluation before he stops appealing his death sentence.

Brad Lee Nelson was convicted of the 2006 killing of his 14-year-old niece. He 
is asking the court to stop the automatic appeals process that accompanies 
death penalty cases because he wants to accept his death sentence.

2 other death row inmates have requested the same thing in the past. Dale 
Hausner, who committed suicide in 2013, was in the process of trying to speed 
up his execution. Robert Comer was put to death in May of 2007 after giving up 
his right to an appeal.

(source: KJZZ news)








CALIFORNIA:

Actor accused in 2 deaths shouldn't face death penalty, attorney says



A community theater actor accused of killing two college students in an effort 
to get money for his approaching wedding should not face the death penalty 
because of misconduct by prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, an attorney 
for the accused man says.

In an 80-page summary of what he contends is a culture of misconduct and the 
misuse of jailhouse informants, Orange County public defender Scott Sanders 
argued that prosecutors should drop the death penalty against his client.

Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 30, admitted to authorities that he killed Samuel Herr, 
26, and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, in 2010 so he could steal $50,000 from 
Herr's bank account, according to grand jury testimony.

Prosecutors say Wozniak staged Kibuishi's body inside a Costa Mesa apartment to 
look like Herr had sexually assaulted her. He also is accused of dismembering 
Herr's body in a theater at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base so he 
could hide the remains in a park in Long Beach.

Wozniak's case has been slowed by accusations of misconduct that Sanders has 
leveled against the Orange County district attorney's office and Orange County 
Sheriff's Department.

In the summary filed late last week, Sanders outlines what he believes to be a 
culture of Orange County law enforcement withholding evidence that could be 
helpful to defendants and misusing jailhouse informants to violate defendants' 
constitutional rights.

He says Wozniak was approached by a jailhouse informant to elicit a confession.

"The Orange County district attorney's office, and related law enforcement 
agencies, have proved over decades that they are willing to decide on their own 
who is guilty and who is not, who deserves to live and who to die, and to 
illegally create and withhold evidence in the pursuit of enforcing those 
decisions," Sanders wrote.

He argued that capital punishment should be ruled out for his client. Sanders 
has made a similar argument for another client -- Scott Evans Dekraai, who 
pleaded guilty to killing 8 people in the Seal Beach salon shooting but who has 
yet to be sentenced. He also faces the death penalty.

But prosecutor Matt Murphy said the filing had little or nothing to do with 
Wozniak's case. Prosecutors say they will not use any information from 
jailhouse informants in Wozniak's trial.

"This has to be the biggest dud in the history of Orange County jurisprudence," 
Murphy said in court.

Sanders' summary is only a preview of his allegations, not an official request 
to dismiss the death penalty in the case, which caused some confusion in court 
Friday. Sanders explained that he wanted to give the court an idea of what he's 
been doing but said he needs more time to craft a final motion that he said 
could run 20,000 pages, an idea that Murphy mocked.

"Not only is that absurd, it's obscene," Murphy said, reminding the court that 
3 deadlines for Sanders' motion have already passed.

A deadline for Sanders' motion to bar the death penalty is unclear. The trial 
is scheduled to begin Feb. 13.

(source: Los Angeles Times)








WASHINGTON:

Bipartisan group of lawmakers seeks to replace death penalty with life in 
prison without parole



A bipartisan group of state lawmakers introduced a bill today that would 
replace the death penalty in Washington state with a sentence of life in prison 
without parole.

House Bill 1739, sponsored by Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-Seattle) and co-sponsored 
by Reps. Maureen Walsh (R-Walla Walla), Tina Orwall (D-Des Moines) and Chad 
Magendanz (R-Issaquah), would also require the convicted individual to work to 
pay restitution to victims and their families.

"We realize this is a painfully difficult and profoundly serious public issue, 
and we ask our colleagues and the public to join us in a constructive dialogue 
about our state's approach," Carlyle said. "We are including a new provision 
that requires those convicted of offenses to work within prison, as appropriate 
per the Department of Corrections, to contribute towards restitution for 
victims' families."

The bipartisan group agrees that repealing and replacing the death penalty is 
both a morally and fiscally responsible policy change. The carrying out of 
death penalties, though rare, is costly for the state.

"We believe there has been a shift in thinking about the death penalty 
including recognition of the impact of DNA testing, cost to taxpayers, and lack 
of support for victims' families in a drawn-out process," Orwall said. "This 
year is the right time to seriously consider this legislation, and we deeply 
respect the openness of colleagues and families that have been touched by 
violence as our state thoughtfully discusses this issue

(source: Kent Reporter)

*********************

Lawmakers seek to replace death penalty



A bipartisan group of state lawmakers want to put an end to the death penalty 
in Washington state.

2 bills introduced in the House and Senate Monday would permanently repeal the 
death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole. 
The bill would also require convicted killers to work to pay restitution to the 
families of victims.

"We realize this is a painfully difficult and profoundly serious public issue, 
and we ask our colleagues and the public to join us in a constructive dialogue 
about our state's approach," House bill sponsor Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, 
said in a news release.

The House bill is also sponsored by Reps. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla; Tina 
Orwall, D-Des Moines; and Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah. The Senate bill is 
sponsored by former Democratic Sen. Mark Miloscia, R-Federal Way, and Sens. 
Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, and Jamie Pederson, D-Seattle.

In February 2014, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a moratorium on the death penalty 
in Washington state for as long as he remains governor. At the time he said he 
supports a permanent ban by the Legislature.

18 states have already abolished the death penalty, with Maryland being the 
most recent to do so in 2013.

(source: Yakima Herald)

**************************************

Lawmakers introduce bill to abolish death penalty



Lawmakers in the House have introduced a measure to abolish the death penalty, 
an effort that has failed in Washington state in previous years but which 
supporters hope will gain traction following Gov. Jay Inslee's decision last 
year to impose a moratorium on capital punishment.

The bipartisan bill, introduced Monday by Democratic Rep. Reuven Carlyle of 
Seattle, would replace the death penalty with a life sentence with no 
opportunity for parole. House Bill 1739 would also require those convicted to 
pay restitution to victims and their families.

The death penalty is currently authorized by the federal government and 32 
states, including Washington and Oregon. However, the governors in both Oregon 
and Washington have said no one would be executed during their time in office. 
18 states have abolished the death penalty, with Maryland being the most 
recent.

(source: Associated Press)








USA:

National Registry of Exonerations----Nation Saw Record Number of Exonerations 
in 2014; Report from National Registry of Exonerations Documents More than 100 
Exonerations in a Single Year for the 1st Time



The National Registry of Exonerations recorded 125 exonerations of innocent 
criminal defendants in 2014, the 1st time the Registry found more than 100 
exonerations in 1 year, according to a report released today that analyzes 
trends in exonerations and details the work of the nation's 15 prosecutorial 
Conviction Integrity Units.

The Registry credits Conviction Integrity Units for contributing to the spike 
in exonerations: 34 more than the previous record of 91 exonerations in 2013.

"The big story for the year is that more prosecutors are working hard to 
identify and investigate claims of innocence. And many more innocent defendants 
were exonerated after pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit," said 
Michigan Law Professor Samuel Gross, editor of the National Registry of 
Exonerations and the author of the report.

Read the report, Exonerations in 2014, at http://bit.ly/1C4YwIk

Visuals at 
http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Exoneration-by-Year.aspx

The states with the most exonerations in 2014 are Texas (39), New York (17), 
Illinois (7), Michigan (7), Ohio (6), North Carolina (4), Louisiana (3), 
Maryland (3), Oregon (3), Pennsylvania (3), and Tennessee (3). The states with 
the most recorded exonerations are not necessarily those where most false 
convictions have occurred.

Much of the increase in the total number of exonerations is due to 33 
exonerations in drug cases in Harris County (Houston), Texas. In mid-2014, the 
Harris County District Attorney's Post Conviction Review Section centralized 
and prioritized its review of cases in which crime lab analyses of the "drugs" 
defendants pled guilty to possessing was negative for the presence of illegal 
substances. The trends in 2014 reflect several long-term trends in exonerations 
that are expected to continue:

--67 of the 125 known exonerations in 2014 - 54% - were obtained at the 
initiative or with the cooperation of law enforcement. This is the highest 
number of exonerations with law enforcement support in a single year. Almost 
3/4 of those exonerations, 49 out of 67, were the work of Conviction Integrity 
Units.

--47 of the 125 defendants who were exonerated in 2014 - 38% - were exonerated 
for crimes to which they had pled guilty, another record number. Almost all 
exonerations for drug crimes in 2014 were for convictions based on guilty 
pleas.

--Non-DNA exonerations continue to rise. The number of exonerations that did 
not rely on DNA rose to an all-time high of 103, a higher number than all 
exonerations, with and without DNA, in any single previous year.

--The proportion of exonerations in the Registry that do not involve murder or 
sexual assault continues to steadily grow. The proportion of non-homicide, 
non-sex crime exonerations rose from 25% of all cases in the earliest 5-year 
period covered by the Registry (1989 through 1993) to 34% for the most recent 
5-year period (2010 through 2014).

--Nearly 1/2 of the known exonerations in 2014 - 46% - were cases where no 
crime in fact occurred. That is true of all the drug crime exonerations - they 
were based on lab tests that showed that the substances seized from the 
defendants contained no illegal drugs - as well as cases of accidents that were 
misinterpreted as crimes, assaults that were concocted by the supposed victims, 
and others.

"Judging from known exonerations in 2014, the legal system is increasingly 
willing to act on innocence claims that have often been ignored: those without 
biological evidence or with no perpetrator who can be identified because in 
fact no crime was committed; cases with comparatively light sentences; and 
judgments based on guilty pleas by defendants who accepted plea bargains to 
avoid pre-trial detention and the risk of harsher punishment after trial," the 
report states.

(source: The National Registry of Exonerations, a project of the University of 
Michigan Law School, provides detailed information about every known 
exoneration in the United States since 1989 - cases in which a person was 
wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new 
evidence of innocence. exonerationregistry.org)

*************************

Capital punishment----Caught in the middle



Nearly 21 years ago, Justice Harry Blackmun declared he would "no longer tinker 
with the machinery of death." In his last few months on the Supreme Court 
before retiring in the summer of 1994, Justice Blackmun abandoned his previous 
view that capital punishment was consistent with the Constitution. "The death 
penalty experiment," he concluded at the age of 85, "has failed." It is a 
"delusion" to think otherwise.

Justice Blackmun's prediction that the court would eventually reach this 
conclusion has not come to pass. Yet America is marching away from the death 
penalty. The number of executions rose from 31 in 1994 to a peak of 98 in 1999, 
then began dropping as more and more states declared death penalty moratoriums 
or abolished it altogether. In 2014, of the 35 people who were put to death in 
America, at least 3 died grisly, apparently painful deaths. In July, Joseph 
Wood visibly suffered for over 90 minutes before finally dying in a botched 
execution in Arizona. In February, it took Clayton Lockett, an inmate in 
Oklahoma, 43 minutes to die after writhing in pain.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging three upcoming 
executions in Oklahoma. The inmates contend that Oklahoma???s drug cocktail 
violates the eighth amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. They zero 
in on 1 of the 3 drugs in the state's protocol, midazolam, a substitute for 
barbiturates that European manufacturers opposed to capital punishment are no 
longer selling to American prisons. It seems midalozam may be less effective 
than the other drugs in bringing about "a deep, coma-like unconsciousness", and 
thus might expose a person being executed to a great deal of pain when the 
other 2 drugs - 1 to induce paralysis, another to stop the heart - are 
injected.

As Adam Liptak reminds us in the New York Times, it takes only four justices to 
agree to hear a case but five to issue a stay of execution. So while the 
justices agreed to hear the Oklahoma challenge against capital punishment, the 
lead petitioner in the case, a convicted murderer named Charles Warner, was 
actually put to death on January 15th. He fell one vote short of having his 
execution date put off. The case once known as Warner v Gross is now called 
Glossip v Gross, named for Richard Glossip, another Oklahoma prisoner and the 
new lead petitioner. Yet Mr Glossip is now scheduled to die this Thursday, 
which could make the late-April oral arguments in his case rather moot. As the 
inmates' lawyer put it in a response to the court on Monday:

"If no stay is ordered, Petitioners will be executed before the Court has a 
chance to review the merits of their case. Petitioners' brief on the merits is 
due on March 9 - which is 4 days after the last of the 3 scheduled executions."

Whatever one thinks of the justice or constitutionality of the death penalty, 
this month's sequence of events brings to mind Justice Blackmun's aversion to 
"tinkering with the machinery of death". The conundrum facing these 3 Oklahoma 
inmates rivals anything written by Kafka. Although the court recognises that 
their case has merit, they all may be executed anyway. It is an oddity of 
America's justice system that these men will probably die before the court can 
consider whether they should live.

(source: The Economist)

***********************

Accused Bomber's Lawyers Say Boston Jury Pool Is Too Biased



The search for jurors in the case of accused Boston Marathon bombing suspect 
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is taking longer than expected.

Defense attorneys say it's nearly impossible to find open-minded, unbiased 
jurors around Boston. They're asking yet again for the judge to move the trial 
somewhere else.

>From the beginning, defense attorneys have argued the entire jury pool has been 
poisoned by what they call "a narrative of guilt" from a "tidal wave" of media 
coverage. Now, Tsarnaev's lawyers say jurors' own comments on a court 
questionnaire prove widespread bias.

1 potential juror wrote, "We all know he's guilty, so quit wasting everybody's 
time and string him up." Another put down, "They should have already killed 
him."

Defense attorneys say that 68 % of the nearly 1,400 people summoned in the 
federal death penalty trial have already decided that Tsarnaev is guilty, and 
about as many say they have a personal, emotional connection to the case.

"I don't think it's a close call," says David Hoose, a Boston-area defense 
attorney. "If this case doesn't get moved, what one would get moved?"

Hoose, who has handled other death penalty cases, says this one has had an 
exceptionally broad impact. "Virtually everyone is gonna be no more than 2 
degrees of separation from someone who was at the scene," he says.

The explosion at the marathon finish line killed 3 people and injured hundreds 
in 2013. Personal connections to the blast run the gamut, from those who were 
there at the marathon, to those with friends or family who were victims, to 
medics or police involved in the violent shootout or dramatic capture of 
Tsarnaev, found hiding in a boat in a suburban backyard after a massive 
manhunt.

It's unclear where the judge, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr., will draw 
the line. One juror wrote that her personal connection was "being a 29-year-old 
female just like one of the victims."

This combination of undated photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev (left) and Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev. During a gunbattle with police days after the Boston bombing, 
Dzhokhar ran over and killed his older brother.

Equally challenging is who should be disqualified from the jury pool for 
opposing the death penalty. By law, jurors have to be open to it, and many 
people can easily be ruled in or out.

Robel Phillipos, a college friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev, departs federal court on Monday. Phillipos was found guilty Tuesday 
of 2 counts of lying to the FBI. But it's less clear what to do with potential 
jurors who tell the judge, like ` woman did, that she's categorically opposed 
to capital punishment - but when pressed, eventually conceded she might 
possibly be for it, if her own child were the victim.

"There are shades of gray, and I mean, this does get confusing and muddy," 
Hoose says. "Some jurors do go back and forth."

Defense attorneys have already unsuccessfully argued that it would be 
impossible to find impartial jurors in Boston, but Nancy Gertner, a former 
federal judge, says citing the opinions of actual potential jurors now bolsters 
the defense's case.

"This is now basically arguing that those predictions are borne out," she says. 
"I mean, it's essentially saying, 'See, we were right.'"

Judge O'Toole has insisted that impartial jurors can be found here, but he's 
also left the door open to reconsidering.

Gertner says there's good reason to doubt whether jurors can really set aside a 
personal connection to the bombing, even when they say they can.

"The notion that you can take a bad fact, a prejudicial fact, and then easily 
compartmentalize it so it doesn't bleed into the rest of your view of the case 
- that is extraordinarily difficult," Gertner says.

If Tsarnaev is ultimately convicted, jury selection is likely to be grounds for 
appeal. As defense attorneys wrote in making their case for a change of venue, 
when you screen out all jurors who oppose the death penalty, and all those with 
preexisting opinions on guilt or with personal connections, "those few who 
survive the winnowing ... will not be representative of the community," as the 
Constitution requires.

(source: NPR)

*****************

Death-penalty opponents excluded from jury in 'Marathon bombing' trial



Jury selection for the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the "Marathon 
Bombings" that shook Boston in 2013, has prompted a controversy over the 
exclusion of those who object to the death penalty.

Potential jurors who state that they have moral objections to the use of the 
death penalty are being excused from the trial. Since the Catechism says that 
circumstances justifying capital punishment are "very rare, if not practically 
non-existent," the court's policy in this case would seem to exclude Catholics. 
However, polls show that a substantial majority of Catholics favor the death 
penalty at least in some circumstances.

Nearly 1/2 (46%) of the residents of the Boston area identify themselves as 
Catholics.

(source: CatholicCulture.org)

**************

Death penalty should at least be painless if still around



While being on death row does mean a death sentence, it doesn't mean the 
procedure itself should be painful - a standard to be measured in an 
approaching Supreme Court case after not-so-harmless lethal injections.

According to the New York Times, the Supreme Court chose to hear a case Friday 
brought by 4 inmates on death row about the constitutionality of certain 
combinations of execution drugs that have sparked controversy for their having 
caused severe pain during the lethal procedure. This decision rightfully puts 
the spotlight back on Oklahoma, where inmate Clayton D. Lockett experienced 
visible pain after an injection last year and died 43 minutes later.

Morality of the death penalty aside, the court's decision to address this issue 
could eliminate the unnecessary harm involved, which shouldn't be inherent to 
lethal injections.

1 of the drugs in question is midazolam, a sedative meant to induce 
unconsciousness that is used before the other drugs in order to prevent pain. 
In addition to being used in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona, it has also been 
administered in Florida several times, as the NY Times article reported.

While proponents of capital punishment might argue that it doesn't matter if 
death row inmates experience pain, given the nature of their crimes, states 
still have a responsibility to prevent cruel and unusual punishment, regardless 
of the inmate's reason for being on death row.

Additionally, there certainly shouldn't be any ambiguity about the effects of 
the drugs that are used - if they must be used - especially since medical 
experts have noted that those injected with midazolam can suffer while 
paralyzed if the drug doesn't work properly, according to the NY Times article.

As the article reported, in her dissent of the court's refusal to stay the 
execution of Charles F. Warner, 1 of the inmate plaintiffs, Associate Justice 
Sonia Sotomayor wrote that a witness from Oklahoma in defense of the drug 
referenced Drugs.com instead of medical studies. As Sotomayor suggested, the 
chances of an execution going awry weigh heavily against one expert's argument 
given that mistakes are avoidable.

Another major problem that arose with the case is the sheer irony of the court 
voting not to stay the execution of one of the inmates who led the case, when 
that inmate was appealing the use of the particular drug combination in 
question. However, with nine justices on the court, only 4 have to agree to 
hear a case while 5 must agree to hold off an execution.

As indicated in another NY Times article, if the Supreme Court doesn't stay the 
other executions, the lead petitioner in place of Warner is to be executed this 
week, while the others have execution dates prior to April, when the court will 
hear the case.

In spite of the court's bizarre split on the decision to stay the execution, 
the case will hopefully reduce any complacency with problematic execution 
drugs. Rather than simply administering more of the same drug to make sure it 
works, as the Associated Press reports Oklahoma now does with midazolam, states 
must use the safest options available, whether or not that means using other 
drugs or none at all.

Isabelle Cavazos is a junior majoring in English and Spanish.

(source: The (Univ. South Florida) Oracle)

***********************

'Dark Knight' Theater Shooting Trial and Victims Update 2015: 80 Potential 
Jurors Dismissed From James Holmes Case



Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. dismissed 80 people before jury proceedings ended 
for the Colorado theater shooting case Friday over reasons they claimed would 
not allow them to sit on the jury, Associated Press reported.

Over 90 potential jurors were released during the 4th day of jury selection 
while 12 others were released for reasons including health issues, a dying 
family member and language problems.

There were 9,000 possible jurors summoned for the case and over 200 have 
already been released within the first 4 days of the jury selection.

James Holmes is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 others in a 
Colorado theater shooting back in July 2012.

Other potential jurors said they could not sit on the mass murder case for 
reasons including having a bad back, having panic attacks and being in the 
military, according to Yahoo News via AP.

Prosecutors asked the judge not to reveal why other jurors have been released 
so that it does not give others a reason to avoid serving jury duty.

"You have to consider the fact that people may not want to sit on this jury," 
defense attorney Daniel King said to the judge.

Mass shooters usually do not make it to trial. They usually take their own 
lives while others end up with plea agreements.

Yet, Holmes prosecutors rejected a plea.

For the trial, the 24 chosen jurors and their 12 alternates will not be allowed 
to talk to anyone, including to each other about the case.

"The length that you have to be on this case, and then to tell someone they 
can't talk about it, that is a huge burden," said Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a 
University of Dayton law professor.

Jury selection could last until June while the trial could run into October. 
Mental health counseling will be available for jurors after they reach a 
verdict.

While prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, Holmes pleaded not guilty by 
reason of insanity.

(source: Latin Post)