AURORA | Lawyers for James Holmes asked Wednesday a judge to bar the public from easily accessing court documents in the case, and said continued attention is damaging his right to a fair trial.
In a motion filed Sept. 25 and unsealed one day later, Holmes’ defense team said the case is the type of “rare” instance where the court should keep typically public criminal records from being released.
“Counsel for Mr. Holmes is concerned that the extensive media coverage of this case, which proceeds unabated, has and will continue to injure his constitutional right to receive a fair trial by an impartial jury in an irreparable fashion,” they wrote.
Several documents in the case have remained sealed as the case works its way through the court. Only this spring, several months after the shootings that left 12 dead and dozens more injured, did the court unseal the arrest and search warrant affidavits in the case.
The findings of state doctors who evaluated Holmes this summer to determine his sanity also remain sealed.
In particular, the lawyers said the court should stop posting unsealed documents to the state court’s website. Instead, the lawyers said the public and media who wish to see those documents should have to go to the courthouse and request each document they want to see.
Lawyers representing several media outlets have argued in court that the public has a constitutional right to access criminal preceding.
Holmes’ lawyers are also urging the judge to scrap subpoenas for several officials from the state mental hospital in Pueblo where Holmes was evaluated for several months this summer.
Prosecutors early this month subpoenaed those officials to appear at a hearing Sept. 30 and told them to bring documents related to Holmes’ hospital stay.
The defense argued that much of the information prosecutors are asking for should be considered privileged and protected by doctor-patient confidentiality rules.