When mass shooters die, some feel better off with no trial

FILE - In this April 8, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama embraces Scarlett Lewis, mother of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim Jesse Lewis, after speaking at in Hartford, Conn. Through his death in a gun battle with police on Sunday, June 12, 2016, the Orlando nightclub gunman deprived his victims' families of the chance for a trial that could have helped to channel grief, offer a sense of justice or provide answers for the bloodshed. In Newtown, Conn., where the gunman took his own life after killing 26 people inside the school in December 2012, Lewis said his survival only would have made it more difficult as she grieved for her murdered son, Jesse. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (The Associated Press)

NEWTOWN, Conn. – Through his death in a gun battle with police, the Orlando nightclub gunman deprived his victims' families of the chance for a trial that could have helped to channel grief, offer a sense of justice or provide answers for the bloodshed.

But some touched by other mass shootings in which the killers have died say they were grateful to be spared the extended, emotionally grueling legal proceedings of the kind that have added to publicity for killers like the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooter.

In Newtown, Connecticut, the gunman took his own life after killing 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. Scarlett Lewis says his survival only would have made it more difficult as she grieved for her murdered 6-year-old son, Jesse.