Mental state key in theater shooting trial

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The parents of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes joined the parents of his victims in line on a gray and drizzly Monday morning before entering the courthouse where lawyers prepared to declare why he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

The key to the fate of Holmes will be determining what was going on inside his mind as he slipped into a midnight Batman premiere, threw smoke canisters and then marched up and down the aisles, firing at anyone who tried to flee.

James Holmes acknowledges killing 12 people and wounding 70 more inside the packed theater, but has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. His parents, Robert and Arlene Holmes, have pleaded for their son's life to be spared, calling him a "human being gripped by a severe mental illness."

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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