Gunman Holmes spared death penalty for Colorado cinema shooting

A jury in Colorado, United States, has spared death penalty to gunman James Holmes for shooting 12 people to death during the screening of a Batman film in 2012.

According to the BBC, Holmes will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The defence team had argued that the former neuroscience graduate student, now 27, was insane at the time of the attack.

But since there was no unanimity on the decision of awarding a death penalty, the jury decided on an automatic life sentence without parole for Holmes.

The sentence is expected to be imposed formally at a later hearing.