Lawyers for James Holmes, the man accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, now say he will change his plea from “Not Guilty” to one of “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity” (NGRI).
In an earlier post (Crimes, Criminals and the Insanity Defense), I described the basic components of such a defense. The defendant claims he either lacked the capacity to know right from wrong, or had a mental disorder when he committed the crime, causing an inability to act within the requirements of the law.