Colorado theater shooter gets life without parole; death penalty would have been uncertain
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The life sentence delivered by a divided jury to Colorado theater shooter James Holmes for murdering 12 defenseless moviegoers averts an uncertain path to execution in a state that has put only one man to death in nearly a half-century.
Colorado rarely carries out capital punishments. Only one man in the state has been put to death since 1967.
Still, many observers figured this notorious mass-murder would be the exception that proved the rule. Prosecutors refused a pre-trial plea deal that would have kept him behind bars for life, calling Holmes the personification of evil and saying that death was the only appropriate response.
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The verdict means Holmes will remain behind bars forever, averting an appeals process that would have taken decades of public hearings and millions of taxpayer dollars to resolve.