Holly Hogan

Professor Raifman

Applying Abnormal Psychology to Forensic Cases

July 22, 2018

James Holmes: The Joker

On July 20th 2012, James Eagan Holmes entered a midnight showing of The Dark Night

at a Cinemark theatre in Aurora, Colorado with one goal: to kill. By the end of his fatal shooting,

12 people were dead and 70 more were wounded. After nearly three years of psychiatric

evaluations and discussions, the case finally went to trial in April of 2015. Holmes plead not

guilty by reason of insanity. In this report, I will diagnose the defendant with a mental disorder

and complete a forensic evaluation of his insanity, taking into account the professional opinions

of the expert witnesses called to testify and the evidence used in his case.

The primary diagnosis for the defendant at the time of the crime is schizotypal

personality disorder. According to the DSM-V, the patient must adhere to at least 5 of 9 criteria.

Holmes met these requirements. He had ideas of reference and odd beliefs such as the “point

system” he had created that was the transfer of qualities from a victim of murder to the murderer.

The dying of his hair to a bright red qualifies as odd or eccentric appearances and behavior,
especially since his reasoning was that he wanted to separate himself from “the man he saw in

the mirror”. Holmes only had a handful of friends, none of whom were that close, except for his

ex-girlfriend and he experienced social anxiety. However, there is a differential diagnosis that is

applicable to this case which is schizophrenia. During his initial imprisonment, before the trial,

Holmes’ symptoms progressed from schizotypal disorder to schizophrenia. While in captivity,

Holmes’ experienced a psychotic break including smearing feces in his cell and believing

President Obama was communicating with him through a television. There was also video

footage of Holmes in his cell falling back from his bunk bed. These are clear pieces of evidence

supporting a psychotic break, leading to a diagnosis of schizophrenia because of his delusions,

abnormal behavior, emotional suppression, and asociality, all of which are requirements of this

diagnosis, according to the DSM-V. In conclusion, at the time of the crime, the defendant was

suffering from schizotypal personality disorder. However, after the trauma of the crime, Holmes’

illness progressed to become schizophrenia. The expert witnesses, Dr. Raquel Gur and Dr.

William Reid, disagreed on Holmes’ diagnosis.

With this information in mind, we move on to the insanity plea. The Colorado test for

insanity first requires the defendant to have a mental illness. Mental diseases that are categorized

as personality disorders, psychopathy or substance abuse are very rarely considered for the
insanity plea. If Holmes’ had been solely diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, the

insanity plea probably would have been thrown out much sooner because it is a personality

disorder but, because of the conflicting diagnoses, this was not the case. The insanity test is as

follows:

a) A person who is so diseased or defective in mind at the time of the commission of the act as to be incapable

of distinguishing right from wrong with respect to that act is not accountable.

OR

b) A person who suffered from a condition of mind caused by mental disease or defect that prevented the

person from forming a culpable mental state that is an essential element of a crime charged.

In my opinion, despite his mental illness, Holmes’ had the capacity to tell right from

wrong. There are several pieces of evidence to support this opinion. First, there were chats

between Holmes’ and his ex-girlfriend, Gargi Datta, in which they discussed his desire to kill.

Holmes’ expressed to Datta that what he wanted to was “evil” so he couldn’t do it. This clearly

shows his knowledge of the criminality and immorality of his crimes. In a notebook Holmes’

kept that was mailed to his therapist on the night of the crime, he deliberated his alternative

options such as serial killing which he eliminated on these bases: “too personal, too much
evidence, easily caught, few kills”. The defendant was unquestionably aware of the fact that his

actions were punishable by law and therefore had the capacity to form the essential “culpable

mental state”, which is the essentiality of the second prong of the insanity test. Further evidence

of Holmes’ capacity to know the criminality of his crime was his purchase of body armor, a gas

mask, and headphones. In Dr. Gur’s testimony, she addressed this and informed the court that the

defendant made these purchases to protect himself from law enforcement, his exacts words she

could not recall. The purchase of headphones is possibly because of his need to block out the

sounds of the intense violence of the crime he was committing, which points to his understanding

of the immorality of the act (prong 1 of the test). Also in his notebook was the extensive

planning that Holmes’ undertook prior to the deed. After deliberating between a movie theatre

and an airport, he took into account the isolation and location of the movie theatre that he chose,

Cinemark 16. He then decided on theatre 9 because of its few exits and size. This planning is yet

another example of his efforts to avoid being caught and having fewer kills. Dr. Gur, who is an

expert in neuropsychiatry, testified that Holmes did not have the capacity to know right from

wrong. However, later in her testimony, she directly contradicted herself by saying that Holmes

knew he would be considered crazy in the eyes of other people. In other words, Holmes’ knew

that his actions were wrong from a societal standard of morality, which is the entire basis of the
first prong of the insanity test. Keeping all of this information in mind, I conclude that James

Holmes was legally sane at the time of the shooting and therefore should be found guilty on all

charges.

District attorney George Brauchler put it best; if it weren’t for four factors, the shooting

could have been much worse: the neighbours who called the police on the loud music from

Holmes’ apartment, the fumbling of a tear gas can, a faulty assault rifle, and the heroes who

saved lives. Although James Holmes suffered from an unfortunate mental illness and lacked

proper support in his life to help this suffering, he is still 100% criminally responsible for the

deaths of 12 people. He had full knowledge of the immorality and criminality of his actions.
 Bibliography

● American Psychiatric Association. (2013). ​Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental

disorders (​ 5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

● George Brauchler, District Attorney of Colorado, Opening statement in James Holmes Trial,

(2015)

● Dr. Raquel Gur, testimony in James Holmes Trial, (2015)