Closing Arguments to Begin in Colorado Theater Shooting Case

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — Attorneys in the Colorado theater shooting case have one last chance to convince jurors that gunman James Holmes was either a calculating killer or a man in the grips of psychosis.

Closing arguments in the first phase of Holmes' death penalty trial are scheduled for Tuesday. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will have two hours each to make their respective cases. Then jurors will begin deliberating nearly three years to the day after Holmes opened fire on the theater, killing 12 and injuring 70 more.

During nearly three months of testimony, prosecutors argued that Holmes methodically planned and carried out the attack. Two court-appointed doctors who examined him said he was mentally ill but legally sane.

Defense attorneys said Holmes suffers schizophrenia and was in the grips of a psychotic episode that rendered him unable to tell right from wrong. Two defense witnesses testified that Holmes was legally insane.

(Story by: Sadie Gurman, The Associated Press)