Colorado Shooting Suspect Goes to Court Today; Is Notebook a Privileged Patient Communication?
A week after Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes made his first court appearance looking dazed, he is scheduled to be back in court today to face formal federal charges.
Lawyers will debate two motions related to case information today, the Denver Post reports. A defense motion argues a notebook Holmes reportedly sent to his psychiatrist is a privileged doctor-patient communication. Press reports said the notebook contained plans for Holmes’ attack, but prosecutors have suggested reports about the notebook are inaccurate. The defense wants to know who leaked the information.
Another motion filed by the Denver Post and other media organizations argues that the judge’s decision to seal most of the documents in the case file violates a constitutional right of access.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others during a showing of the new Batman movie. On Friday court papers revealed Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, where he was a grad student in neuroscience before withdrawing, the Associated Press reports.
