Sure Looks Like Colorado DA Wants Death Penalty In Cinema Shooting To Further His Career

James Eagan Holmes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Eagan_Holmes

Five Surprising Facts About The Death Penalty Worldwide
National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130412-death-penalty-capital-punishment-culture-amnesty-international/

Alan: In Shakespeare' time, widespread belief in eternal afterlife - and in God's forgiveness - was so strong that Hamlet could not bring himself to kill the uncle who murdered his father (and bedded his mother) for fear that he would send the man straight to Paradise.

We moderns have grown so materialistic that, despite our emphatic proclamations of Christian belief, we much prefer the prospect of sending a repentant soul to Heaven over the certain terrestrial punishment of spending the rest of life in a cramped, ugly cell, deprived of freedom and surrounded by repulsive, menacing people.

The fact that American DAs often consider the death penalty a political prize that will further their careers is an essential component of American Exceptionalism.

Here is the list of seven countries that lead the world in state-sponsored killing.

1.) China
2.) Iran
3.) Iraq
4.) Saudi Arabia
5.) The United States
6.) Yemen
7.) Sudan

We are known by the company we keep.

Defense In Colo. Movie Theater Shooting Questions DA's Political Motives

APRIL 16, 2015

Audio File: http://www.npr.org/2015/04/16/400052197/defense-team-in-colo-movie-theater-shooting-questions-da-s-political-motives

BEN MARKUS

The district attorney prosecuting the Aurora shooting case is pursuing the death penalty. The defense was rejected when it offered to have the suspect plead guilty in return for life in prison.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

This next story explores just what punishment equals justice for an atrocity. The man accused of shooting up a theater in Aurora, Colo., will face a jury. The attack killed a dozen people. The defendant has offered a guilty plea in exchange for life in prison. It's a bid to avoid the death penalty. The district attorney said no. That has raised questions about the DA's motives. This is a legal question but also a political one. Here's Colorado Public Radio's Ben Markus.

BEN MARKUS, BYLINE: Two years ago, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler stepped to the podium in court. To his left sat James Holmes, the perpetrator of one of the worst mass shootings in American history. Brauchler told the judge he would pursue capital punishment - that in this case, quote, "justice is death." To his detractors, that decision is one born more of ambition than justice.

DAN RECHT: And this seemingly is well calculated to help his political career.

MARKUS: That's Dan Recht, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender. He says Brauchler, a Republican, could've accepted a plea of guilty, ending the trial, saving millions of dollars and a lot of heartache. But...

RECHT: This will elevate his profile, his name recognition, his status as a conservative politician and increase the likelihood that he can win the conservative vote in Colorado when he runs for higher office.

MARKUS: Brauchler wouldn't grant an interview, citing a gag order from the court regarding pretrial publicity. But his supporters say if any case cried out for the ultimate punishment, it's this one. There's no doubt that Brauchler's fledgling political career is closely tied to the death penalty. When Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper granted a temporary stay of execution in a different case, Brauchler passionately rebuked it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LIEUTENANT COLONEL GEORGE BRAUCHLER: Yeah, you hear frustration and anger in my voice because those victims that have waited patiently for justice for 20 years will now wait for years more.

MARKUS: Suddenly, Brauchler was talked about as a challenger for Hickenlooper in 2014. But he eventually declined to run. Ryan Call is the former chairman of the state Republican Party.

RYAN CALL: And frankly, I admire greatly his willingness to do the job he was hired to do and fulfill his commitment to the voters who elected him to be their district attorney.

MARKUS: Brauchler's good friend and former colleague Dan Deasy says Brauchler is pursuing this case and this punishment out of a genuine sense of duty.

REPRESENTATIVE DAN DEASY: He can't walk away from that for the - what people perceive to be his own aspirations. I mean, he wanted to handle the Holmes case, and that's what he's doing.

MARKUS: And Deasy says the trial is in good hands. George Brauchler's a lawyer and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, previously deployed to Iraq. He's an accomplished law professor, and he's tried more than 150 cases.

DEASY: There is nobody who I would want handling that case more than I would want George to be handling that case. And you know what? I wish I was part of that team. I can tell you that.

MARKUS: Really?

DEASY: Yeah. What an experience.

MARKUS: Deasy says this is clearly the most high-profile case in Colorado history. As a deputy prosecutor, Brauchler tried the only felony cases to stem from the Columbine shooting - minor charges against a couple of gun sellers. Shortly after the Aurora shooting, Brauchler, then a candidate for district attorney, was surprised to find himself in the middle of the action again.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRAUCHLER: I'll bet if I asked you 15 years ago, hey, there's going to be two of the biggest shootings in the history of the United States here, and they're going to happen right here, where we live. You would laugh. You would say, no, come on now - not in Colorado. And yet here we are.

MARKUS: One big difference in the Aurora case - the killer will stand trial. For NPR News, I'm Ben Markus in Denver.