Execution sought over Aurora massacre

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- For James Holmes, "justice is death," prosecutors said Monday in announcing they will seek his execution if he is convicted in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater attack that killed 12 people.

The decision -- disclosed in court just days after prosecutors publicly rejected Holmes' offer to plead guilty if they took the death penalty off the table -- elevated the case to a new level and could cause it to drag on for years.

"It's my determination and my intention that in this case, for James Eagan Holmes, justice is death," District Attorney George Brauchler said, adding that he had discussed the case with 60 people who lost relatives in the July 20 shooting rampage by a gunman in a gas mask and body armor during a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie.

There was no audible reaction from the defendant, 25, a former neuroscience graduate student, who sat in the courtroom with his back to reporters or victims' families. Holmes' parents sat side by side in the gallery, clutching hands with fingers intertwined.

The decision had been widely predicted by legal analysts. Within minutes of its becoming official, the trial was pushed back from August to next February and Judge William B. Sylvester removed himself from the case, saying that now that the charges carry the death penalty they will take years to resolve and he does not have the time to devote to such a drawn-out matter. Colorado has three people on death row but executed just one person over the past 45 years, in 1997.

The prosecutors' announcement elicited mixed reactions from some who were injured or others lost loved ones in the slayings.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Denver Wednesday to highlight Colorado's new gun measures as part of his push for gun control following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.