Consider this: Some 9,000 potential jurors are being summoned, and the jury selection that begins Tuesday could last until May or June when the trial would finally start.
Here are five questions and answers about the approaching trial:
How big and long will the trial be?
In all, Arapahoe County residents stand a 1-in-50 chance of receiving a summons, court spokesman Rob McCallum said.
The enormous pool of potential jurors, designed to ensure a fair trial for Holmes, is being called one of the largest in U.S. history, legal analysts say.
Holmes, who colored his hair red and told police he was “The Joker” upon arrest, faces 166 counts, including murder and attempted murder charges.
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What happened to the movie theater?
Aurora’s Century 16 cinema complex reopened in January 2013.
Elected officials and community members joined victims and their relatives at a remembrance ceremony timed with the theater’s reopening, which featured a screening of “The Hobbit.”
But relatives of nine people killed in the gunfire criticized the remembrance ceremony as a publicity stunt by Cinemark, which runs the cinema.
Those families called the event “disgusting” and “wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones.”
But Tim Warner, Cinemark’s chief executive officer, which is facing lawsuits from several victims’ families and survivors, noted how “recovery is an ongoing process.”
