DENVER (AP) — The defendant in the deadly Colorado theater shootings can be medicated for interviews by psychiatrists if he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, the judge said Monday.
Suspect James Holmes also could be given a polygraph examination as part of an evaluation to determine if he was legally insane at the time of the July 20 shootings, Judge William Sylvester said.
Holmes, 25, is scheduled to enter a plea on Tuesday to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. He is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
If Holmes pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be examined by doctors at the state mental hospital.
In an advisory that Holmes would have to sign if he enters an insanity plea, Sylvester said the examination could include what's called a narcoanalytic interview, or questioning while he is medicated. It wasn't immediately clear what kind of medications would be used.
After reading a draft of the advisory, Holmes' lawyers objected to the possibility of both a narcoanalytic interview and a polygraph, saying they would violate his rights.
In the final version of the advisory, Sylvester said he had incorporated some suggestions from the defense and the prosecution, but he did not specifically address the narcoanalytic interview or polygraph.
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