Some people, including a former NY Times reporter jailed for refusing to reveal her sources, are blaming the public perception of Fox News for a lack of media interest in this case.
That is probably true.
Get over it. This is a big deal. Report on it.
Also, look past the fact that the former NY Times reporter is Judith Miller, who has faced controversy regarding her reporting in the run-up to the Iraq War. That doesn’t matter in this case.
What matters is that a reporter could go to jail for failing to divulge their sources.
Holmes, 25, will be arraigned at 9 a.m. in a case involving a crime that has transfixed and horrified the nation in its viciousness. The former neuroscience doctoral student at the University of Colorado-Denver is accused of opening fire in a packed movie theater on July 20, killing 12 and wounding about 70. He is charged with 166 counts and could face the death penalty.
He has been held without bail in isolation at the Arapahoe County Jail since his surrender and arrest minutes after the theater shooting.
Late last week, Chief District William B. Sylvester, of Colorado’s 18th Judicial District, paved the way for the arraignment by overruling defense claims that the state’s laws on insanity pleas were unconstitutional.
It is widely expected that Holmes, whom his lawyers have characterized as deeply mentally ill, will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. If he is found to be insane or to have a mental defect, he would avoid the death penalty.
There will be a still camera and a television camera in the courtroom for the hearing.
The courtroom artist behind the big cases. With a major murder case taking place this week, Bill Robles, who has spent five decades capturing moments big and small in courtroom cases you might have heard about, is back on the beat. His career is more interesting than about 98 percent of people’s. Anyway, we didn’t want this post to get reblogged by one of those creepy James Holmes fandom Tumblrs, so we used a picture of Kevin Federline instead.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) – CBS4 has learned from reliable law enforcement sources that James Holmes has made multiple suicide attempts in recent days, and at least one of the attempts led to a brief hospitalization.
Defense attorneys for Holmes went to court Wednesday to request a hearing for Holmes set for Thursday be postponed, but they were vague about precisely what happened.
A public defender declined in court to say what was ailing Holmes.
“It’s not as simple as a migraine,” she said.
Law enforcement contacts, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CBS4 investigator Brian Maass that Holmes jailhouse suicide attempts were viewed as being “half-hearted,” with one of them involving him running into a wall in his jail cell, another involving him jumping off his bed.
CBS4 has learned that the hospital trip Tuesday was for diagnostic testing following one of the attempts. Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson declined to confirm the CBS4 report, citing an ongoing gag order in the Holmes case.
Over prosecution objections, a judge went along with the defense motion to postpone the hearing until Dec. 10.
Crazy stuff.
» It gets worse: According to the families of 11 victims, the first $100,000 disbursement wasn’t even given to the victims or their families. It went to 10 local non-profits, at the direction of the Recovery Committee created to manage the donations. “We’re certain that everyone who donated their hard-earned wages intended for 100 percent of the donations to go directly to the victims,” said Tom Teves, who lost his son Alex that night, adding, “Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case.” Gov. Hickenlooper told reporters that he was unaware of the issues with the committee, and “had not heard that some people had received nothing.” He also said his office would take a more proactive approach to monitoring the Recovery Committee going forward.
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
Prosecutors also confirmed in court that CU officials reported the threats to police and cut off his key card, which gave him access to buildings at the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Karen Pearson, a chief deputy district attorney in Arapahoe County, said the actions were taken by CU around the time Holmes took and failed his important oral exams in his neuroscience program.
That test was scheduled June 7 — about six weeks before the theater attack.
Taken together, the revelations amount to the most extensive statement yet by prosecutors as to why they think Holmes committed the theater shooting early the morning of July 20 during the premiere of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.”
An important development in the case being made against James Holmes, the former grad student accused of carrying out a theater shooting that left 12 dead in Colorado last month.
As Aurora moves forward after the tragedy of July 20, it is our hope that the entire community will participate and benefit from the citywide healing process. Many people have asked about the future of Aurora’s Century 16 theater. We want to know your thoughts. Please take a few minutes to tell us your thoughts. These comments will be shared with Cinemark for consideration in their decision making process.A message from the City of Aurora, Colo. • Asking what the city and theater owner Cinemark should do about its movie theater — where, just a month ago, a deadly shooting changed it forever. Options on the table include tearing the theater down and replacing it with a memorial, or re-opening it under a new name. For comparison’s sake, a 1984 shooting at a California McDonald’s restaurant led that company to raze the building and build a new location nearby. A memorial was eventually placed where the fast-food restaurant was initially located.
Defendant has stated that media coverage which has already occured has, in fact, interfered with both the People’s and Defendant’s investigations.Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester • In his response to a recent motion requesting that the judge remove a gag order placed on anyone from the University of Colorado or law enforcement community with direct knowledge of the case being built against James Holmes. He also disagreed with attorney Steve Zansberg — retained by a combination of local media outlets intent on seeing the gag order overturned — who argued that it is in the public’s interest to be able to “monitor the conduct of the judicial branch” throughout the duration of the case. So we may hear little about the case as it’s happening. (EDIT: To be clear, the “defendant” in the case likely refers to the defense, not Holmes himself.) source (via • follow)
A small arsenal of weapons were removed Monday night from the North Ridgeville home of Scott A. Smith, who was arrested after showing up armed with a gun, ammunition and four knives at a showing of The Dark Knight Rises Saturday night at Regal Cinema in Crocker Park.
Westlake Police Department lieutenant Ray Arcuri said Tuesday afternoon that his department was still going through everything seized from Smith’s home. Here are the highlights:
- Several guns, including pistols, shotguns and rifles.
- “Thousands” of bullets.
- A gas mask.
Police also seized computers from Smith’s home, and are awaiting a search warrant to look through them.
Whoa. That’s not good. (ht John Ness)
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
A court document filed Friday revealed Holmes was a patient of University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton before the attack.
Sources told KMGH that Fenton contacted several members of a “behavioral evaluation and threat assessment” team to say Holmes could potentially be a danger to others, the station reported.
The “BETA” team consists of “key” staff members from various university departments who have specific expertise in dealing with assessing potential threats on campus, the school says on its website.
Holmes was a doctoral student at the university’s Anschutz Medical Campus until June, when he withdrew from the program.
Sources told KMGH that university officials never contacted Aurora police with Fenton’s concerns before the July 20 killings.
It’s worth noting that after Holmes withdrew from the school, the BETA team “had no control over him.”
stphn asks: Why did you add that Holmes was charged with 24 counts of FIRST degree murder? The AP said nothing about the breakdown of the charges.
» SFB says: Here’s another story which clearly states the charges were first-degree murder. We spotted another source which said (via tweet) it was first-degree murder, but chose to link to the AP story instead, as AP stories tend to update throughout quickly as stories break. At the time we posted, the story had just broke and the AP had literally just put up their link. — Ernie @ SFB
Colorado shooting suspect charged: 24 counts of first-degree murder, 116 counts of attempted first-degree murder. (Twelve people died in the shooting, so those murder counts apparently are counting for double.)
![thecallus:
theatlantic:
This Is the Obama-Aurora Billboard Everyone’s Talking About
[Image: The Hollywood Reporter]
Sanctioned v. unsanctioned violence.
“That’s a technique of trying to make a point, and maybe it was poorly done.” — Maurice Clements, the guy behind this billboard.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7z9bvVfcY1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
This Is the Obama-Aurora Billboard Everyone’s Talking About
[Image: The Hollywood Reporter]
Sanctioned v. unsanctioned violence.
“That’s a technique of trying to make a point, and maybe it was poorly done.” — Maurice Clements, the guy behind this billboard.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
