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93 Denv. L. Rev. 577 (2015-2016)
Effecting Colorado's Capital Sentencing Scheme in the Aurora Theater Shooting Trial

handle is hein.journals/denlr93 and id is 597 raw text is: EFFECTUATING COLORADO'S CAPITAL SENTENCING SCHEME IN THE AURORA THEATER SHOOTING TRIAL JUDGE CARLOS A. SAMOUR, JR.' ABSTRACT This Article discusses how the court effectuated Colorado's four- step capital sentencing scheme in the sentencing hearing held in the case of the People of the State of Colorado v. James Eagan Holmes in July and August 2015. Although the Colorado Supreme Court has analyzed on multiple occasions the sequential decisions required by this State's death penalty statute, it has never had occasion to address the structure of a sentencing hearing or, more specifically, whether the questions that must be answered should be presented to the jury one at a time in a fur- cated proceeding that follows a logical sequence or all at once at the end of a continuous proceeding that is uninterrupted by intermediate delib- erations. In the Holmes trial, the court found that trifurcating the sentenc- ing hearing was the most prudent course of action under the circum- stances involved, especially considering the defendant's insanity plea. The court combined the two middle steps of the capital sentencing scheme into one step, for a total of three steps, and divided the sentenc- ing hearing into three separate phases, one dedicated to each step. The jury was required to deliberate at the end of each phase, and it was only allowed to continue to the next phase if it made certain findings. Of course, this is by no means the only method of applying the State's capi- tal sentencing scheme-as the old adage goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. However, I remain convinced that it was the most appropriate approach in the Holmes case, as it significantly minimized the risk of confusing the jury, guided counsel in the presentation of evi- dence and arguments, and allowed the court to maintain optimal control over the proceedings. t The Honorable Carlos A. Samour, Jr. is the Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in Colorado. He presided over the trial in the case of the People of the State of Colorado v. James Eagan Holmes, 12CR1522, between January 20 and August 7 of 2015. Judge Samour graduated from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Order of St. Ives, in 1990. He clerked for the Honorable Robert McWilliams on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, he joined the firm of Holland & Hart as an associate. In 1996, he became a prosecutor in the Denver District Attorney's Office. Judge Samour was appointed to the district court bench in the Eighteenth Judicial District by Governor Bill Owens in late 2006, and he took the bench on January 2,2007. In 2014, he was appointed Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District by the Honorable Nancy E. Rice, Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. 577

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