Jurors ask to review video in first day of theater shooter sentencing trial

Jurors in the Colorado theater shooting trial have gone home for the day without deciding whether shooter James Holmes should be considered for the death penalty.

The jury will watch some video of Holmes when it reconvenes Thursday.

The sentencing phase of the trial opened Wednesday. Prosecutors argued that Holmes should be executed because of aggravating factors in the case, such as the killing of a child. One of the 12 victims in the 2012 shooting was just 6 years old.

The jurors were given permission to view a recording of Holmes after the shooting in which he asks police officers if any children were hurt.

Colorado’s complicated death penalty rules require jurors to decide on aggravating factors before they decide whether Holmes should be executed or sentenced to life in prison.

Before prosecutors began closing arguments in phase one of the sentencing trial, the judge banned Newsweek magazine from attending the rest of the trial after it identified a juror on social media.

The news magazine posted the jury foreman’s name on Twitter last week, violating a court order barring news organizations from identifying jurors.

But District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. did not issue a contempt-of-court citation against Newsweek amid the sentencing phase of the trial Wednesday.

The juror in question told the judge he was concerned about being identified and said it was “not cool.”

Samour lambasted the reporter later. He ruled that the juror could remain on the jury because he heard about the tweet but didn’t read the story.