Judge enters plea for Batman attack
2013-03-12 21:47
Centennial - A US judge entered a plea of not guilty on
behalf of alleged Aurora theatre gunman James Holmes on Tuesday, after his
lawyers said they were not ready to enter a plea.
The judge left it open for lawyers for the 25-year-old to
enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity at a later date, at Holmes's
arraignment for the killing of 12 people in the Colorado town of Aurora last
July.
Judge William Sylvester set a trial date for 5 August.
Defence attorney Daniel King said he would be ready to
make a plea by 1 May or 1 June.
Prosecutors objected and said they had waited long
enough, to which the judge agreed and entered a standard not guilty plea.
Holmes is accused over the 20 July massacre at a midnight
screening of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, which revived
America's perennial debate about gun control.
Witnesses said Holmes threw smoke bomb-type devices
before opening fire randomly with weapons, including an AR-15 military-style
rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.
Holmes' arraignment had initially been scheduled for
January, but the judge agreed at that time to delay it, triggering anger from
some of the victims' relatives.
