What Did James Holmes Say to Provoke a Ban From the University of Colorado?
via Prosecutors: Holmes was banned from university after threats – CBS News.
(CBS/AP) DENVER – Prosecutors say the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting made threats and was banned from the University of Colorado after failing a key exam six weeks before the rampage.
Prosecutors made the accusations about James Holmes in court Thursday as they tried to convince a judge to let them see records from the university, where Holmes had been a neuroscience doctoral candidate.
James Holmes saw three mental health professionals before shooting
James Holmes’ lawyers: He’s mentally ill
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Prosecutors also claim professors had urged Holmes to get into another line of work before the shooting and invalidated his student ID in June. Attorney Karen Pearson didn’t disclose where their information came from.
Defense lawyer Daniel King objected to the release of the records, calling the prosecution’s request a “fishing expedition.”
“They already know all about Mr. Holmes’ history at CU. Why is it necessary to get more information when they have all the evidence, they have what they’re seeking?” he said.
King added that the “prosecution is fishing around looking for motive. Motive is irrelevant. Intent is irrelevant.”
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More of PJ Lifestyle’s coverage of the Aurora shooting:
Of course motive & intent are relevant. In every criminal case.
The only defense they really have is not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning he can only be held until he regains his sanity. But it’s an affirmative defense, and they’ll have to prove his mental decline through the school & psychiatric records.
Of course, if he were given crap for being a white male in leftist-academic, politically-correct doctoral program and got his ban for complaining about that in no uncertain four-letter words… university would have something to hide with how everything happened later.
Years ago when I was in a graduate program a bunch of the students were put through their qualifiers. You know… that series of exams to determine if you can actually continue on towards your PhD.
Well, one of the guys was ‘flunked’, that is informed he did not pass. He was not afforded the opportunity to see his exam results, nor were any of the other students. It was just pass or not pass and shut up. This happened to a couple of other students. Since he was a good student everybody was very mystified.
Well, pretty much all the students in the department were very surprised at the outcomes. A few passed that were, well, a surprise. And a few did not pass that were as much of a surprise.
This meant that several very talented students were limited to a Masters’ degree and then out the door they went. Not being satisfied to just let things drop, these very clever and highly trained in the engineering arts students (both those that passed and those that failed) proceeded to open the department safe, which contained all the tests. The only indicator of a pass/not pass results was a single score on the face page. No other marks on any exam. A detailed examination of the various exams revealed no rhyme or reason for the passing or not passing of an individual candidate. No way to determine the cut-off score for passing, nothing…. It all seemed very, very arbitrary.
It was a different time. Nobody went ‘postal’, or in this case ‘academic’.
However, you destroy a life, a future that someone worked very hard for, and do it in such an arbitrary and capricious manner some might think that a defense. It is not that hard to take a person and drive them to desperation, and for some that might not be that far from insanity. Maybe the university does have something to hide. Maybe the university does bear some responsibility and have a measure of culpability.
Naaahhhh….. just ask the university, you can trust them. Just ask the prosecutors, they have it all figured out. Just ask the defense, the guy went around the bend. Just don’t ask ‘why?’ It might get messy.
It’s difficult to fake being mentally ill, but if anyone could do it, Holmes could. I think the prosecution & jury will need every shred of evidence in order to sort it out.
He’s very smart and in the right field to have acquired the knowledge to believably fake mental illness. On the other hand, he’s also the right age to experience a major psychotic break of some kind, and may have been drawn to the field because he is fascinated in it for personal reasons (It’s known, for instance, that psychiatrists have the highest suicide rate of all the medical specialties).
So who knows at this point. But wouldn’t more information help everyone involved make the right decision?
I don’t think we are able enough to guarantee that this guy will never threaten the community if he is held either in a prison or a prison hospital.
The most important point of capital punishment is to protect the community. To be able to say to our children “That bad man can’t hurt anyone else ever again, I promise.”
Fry his ass.
Ted Bundy.
Aside from his hobby of murdering women by the score, Ted was a highly intelligent, professional college student for most of his life. Oh, yes, and a complete and utter sociopath.
Of course the guy is crazy. Batshit crazy. But he knew exactly what he was doing and his premeditation on the act was and is plain to see. And the evidence supports the fact that Holmes knew what he was about to do was wrong and that he would be held accountable for it (the getaway plan where he booby trapped his apatment says much about his thinking on that line).
Insanity in this case is no defense.