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Colo. prosecutor put 2 of 3 inmates on death row
July 23, 2012 - 5:37 PM
District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District, Carol Chambers, leaves after a news conference after a court appearance by James Holmes at the Arapahoe County Courthouse in Centennial, Colo. on Monday, July 23, 2012. Twelve people were killed and dozens injured in a shooting attack early Friday at a packed theater in Aurora, Colo. during a showing of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." Police have identified the suspected shooter as James Holmes, 24. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — The lead prosecutor handling the mass shooting in a Denver suburb says it will be months before there's a decision on whether to pursue the death penalty, and she'll decide only after talking to victim families.
District Attorney Carol Chambers' office is responsible for the convictions of two of the three people on Colorado's death row.
A sociology professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who tracks such cases says she's also the only state district attorney to seek the death penalty in a case in the past five years.
Colorado uses the death penalty relatively sparingly. There has only been one execution since it was reinstated in 1976. The state Legislature fell one vote short of abolishing capital punishment in 2009.
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