Colorado shooter offers conditional plea
Lawyers for James Holmes say he will plead guilty and serve a life prison sentence if he is spared the death penalty.
The man suspected of last year’s Colorado cinema shooting has offered to plead guilty in court, on the condition that he would not be executed.
Defence lawyers for James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people in a shooting rampage at a movie theatre in the city of Aurora in Colorado made the offer according to court documents made public on Wednesday.
“Prior to arraignment, Mr. Holmes made an offer to the prosecution to resolve the case by pleading guilty and spending the rest of his life in prison without the opportunity for parole,” lawyers for Holmes say in the documents.
The documents also say that prosecutors have not yet responded to the defence’s offer, which would spare their client the death penalty.
Holmes, 25, is scheduled to be in court on Monday for a hearing in the high-profile case.
Members of the families of victims and survivors were divided on whether prosecutors should accept the plea bargain.
Holmes faces multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 20 rampage that also wounded 58 people and was one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.