Prosecutors said Monday that they will seek the death penalty for James Holmes, the man accused of gunning down 12 people and wounding 70 at a Batman movie last summer in Colorado.

George Brauchler, the district attorney for Arapahoe County, said he made the decision after speaking with more than 800 victims and family members.

"It's my determination and my intention that in this case, for James Eagan Holmes, justice is death," he said at a hearing.

Brauchler had already rejected an offer from the defense to let Holmes plead guilty and serve a life sentence.

Judge William Sylvester of the Colorado circuit court entered a plea of not guilty for Holmes last month after his lawyers said they were not ready to plead. The judge left the door open for lawyers to mount an insanity defense.

Sylvester on Monday handed the case to a new judge, Carlos Samour. Holmes' trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 5.

The two cases in the legal case fought in public last week. After the defense made its offer, Brauchler said in a filing that Holmes' lawyers were only trying to generate sympathy for their client.

The only conclusion, the prosecutor wrote, "is that the defendant knows he is guilty, the defense attorneys know he is guilty and that both of them know that he was not criminally insane."

Brauchler wrote an Op-Ed in The Denver Post over the weekend defending the death penalty. Colorado legislators have considered banning it. He did not name Holmes but wrote of capital punishment as an important tool of justice.

http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/articles.aspx?aid=17551374&afid=11

Nonsense guy.....Wanted to pour "Sand" in my garri.