AURORA | A second doctor who evaluated James Holmes will be allowed to testify at Holmes’ trial, a judge ruled Friday.
In a 21-page order, Judge Carlos Samour, Jr. rejected the defense’s argument that the two evaluations were so similar that the second one wasn’t necessary.
“The disparate reactions by the defendant to the two examinations speak volumes about the differences between the two reports,” Samour said in his ruling.
READ THE COURT RULING HERE
Prosecutors asked for the second evaluation last year after they objected to some parts of the first evaluation. Over defense objections, Samour ordered Holmes to undergo a second evaluation with a new doctor.
Samour has worked to keep the details about both evaluations secret and much of Friday’s order was redacted, including any mention of what the doctors found regarding Holmes’ sanity.
Samour said in the order that parts of the first evaluation were insufficient, but didn’t specify why. He did say throughout the ruling, however, that there were striking differences in some parts of the report, and that the most recent evaluation “undercut” the other.
The fact that the defense team has defended the first report and tried to have the second one tossed underscores that the reports are not the same, he said.
Holmes’ sanity is expected to be the major issue at his trial next year. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and prosecutors hope to prove to a jury that he was sane during the shootings. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding dozens more during a July 2012 shooting rampage at an Aurora movie theater.
I’d love to see Dr Reid’s explanation as to how a clearly psychotic individual was ‘sane’ at the time of the crime!
Sanity and symptoms of mental illness are two very different things. Sanity is a strictly legal definition, while psychosis is a medical one. It is comparing apples to oranges, really.
Not really. Sanity is a psychiatric/psychological term, and it has a legal definition which is based around psychosis, which also has a legal definition. They are two separate but wholly interrelated concepts, and both exist with strict definitions in law and healthcare settings.
How many message boards are you going to post that same reply on? You should really learn the definition of the word “psychotic” before you keep posting the same nonsense even further. You really do look stupid, you know…
Psychotic at the time of the crime, moron.
If Holmes was psychotic due to drug use, he may have recovered in prison. His lawyers may have to go for temporary insanity
“His lawyers may have to go for temporary insanity”
Ummmm…they ARE going for that. That isn’t the correct term for it, but what you’re talking about is exactly what they’re doing. Have you even read anything about this case? If they were explaining his psychosis as drug induced they would be focusing on toxicology reports, not mental health evaluations.