Colorado theater shooter

Prosecutors this week released 200 pages worth of mail sent to Holmes, mostly by women offering sympathy and sharing their own struggles with mental illness and the legal system. 

The letters were among hundreds of documents prosecutors provided in response to open-records requests made after Holmes' trial, which ended Aug. 26, when a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole for murdering 12 people and trying to kill 70 more in the July 2012 massacre.

The nine women and three men said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on each of the 24 murder counts. That automatically eliminates the death penalty for failed neuroscientist, who blamed his calculated murders of 12 people on mental illness.

But the  psychiatrist said Holme's mental illness led him to open fire.

Dr. Jeffrey Metzner's finding has not changed: He concluded that Holmes knew right from wrong when he killed 12 people and injured 70 others, therefore meeting the legal definition of sanity under Colorado law. But Metzner also says the attack would not have happened if not for Holmes' mental illness. 

The defense hopes that will persuade jurors to sentence Holmes to life in prison without parole instead of to death.