mr. holmes is cull basketball surrounding the shooting. the issue now that is joined is whether or not mr. holmes can raise a defense, a state of mind, insanity defense in the getting that he is in. it is a complex, difficult legal decision that i think this point overlooked, one would gather from the pleadings that have been filed in the case indeed mr. holmes is competent to make a decision to plead guilty. that in and of itself is an interesting issue. >> the charges leveled against him. the prosecution has a wealth of evidence from the scene on the site of the movie theater shooting, 12 people were killed. last wealth of evidence from that boobytrapped apartment that was not too far away where james holmes was living. if you had this case in your purview and holmes was your client is the best defense going down the line, doing away with that competence and going with insanity when it comes to the planning that went into doing something like this? >> if mr. holmes is competent and the lawyers are ethically, you know, comfortable with th

mr. holmes' lawyers which have admitted they would like to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. doing so, to bring this her to colorado to testify and then give up sources. she has pointed to two law enforcement sources in her authoritative article about a year ago, that does a disservice to the constitutional protection. now, you talk about the federal shield law. there is no federal law that protects journalists, although the supreme court indicated back in 1972 pointed to a higher standard by which journalists would be asked to reveal their sources. this lab terrible injustice to ask miss winter to turn over sources. >> john: the federal shield law but let's go to the colorado shield law. complaint complaint has been not as tight as federal shield law or the city of new york where you are. here are some of the exemptions that the person may have to reveal information if, the information is directly relevant to a substantial issue, information cannot be obtained through any reasonable means and all three things have to go together and strong issue issuing the subpoena outweigh

mr. holmes if, you're listening to a victim and somebody who was hurt by what you did, if you just pleadion all move forward, you know? >> reporter: weaver is one of 60 victims the da spoke with before making his decision and telling a courtroom inside full of victims, family members and holmes' own parents that in this case justice is death. welcome news to brian beard whose son was gunned down in the attack. >> give me a front row ticket. he took my good friend from this earth. >> last week it appeared a deal was in works, with holmes offering to plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off the table. prosecutors said they couldn't take the deal without more information. and for the moment, it seems the deal is not being considered. the judge anticipates a trial lasting well into 2014 frustrating victims and families and friends. >> there is no punishment that this kid deserves more so than being in excruciating pain every single day the rest of his life. but sadly that's not the way that we can work in the judicial system right now. so to me, whatever we can do to have this justice

mr. holmes i believe his name was had closer seaters than the one that was a gun free zone. these people are crazy but they are not irrational. so it's a different thing. one of the things worth highlighting when you talk about this, shooters and people who practice lawful self-defense stop a shooting, we don't have a national debate about that. the bias is in the samp bling and how people talk about it. in newtown connecticut there were two times people stopped a shooting. once in san antonio at a movie theater that was not a gun free zone because it was texas and tpwhun cspan.org which said it was a gun free zone but the guy with the gun walked right past it. there say deadly fiction that ill straits how much this is about sanctity and purity and am i keeping these out of a hate free zone or danger zone. >> i want to ecothe utter ignorance of oh ponets of fwuns or gun laws. i was on with bill o'reilly at the beginning of this whole debate and one suggested a law that had passed virginia tech masacre with 98% of the senate bhiped it so he had no idea what sort of laws were

mr. holmes and the defense have to show that their rights outweigh the first amendment rights of both the reporter and the public. i would argue that none of those requirements are met here. this doesn't go to guilt or innocent. >> now, we have no indication when we'll get a ruling on whether the notebook is indeed admissible. and, therefore, jana winter is going to have to wait a little longer to find out whether she faces jail or not, shep. >> shepard: this really has implications for every reporter. >> every single reporter because this goes directly to using confidential sources and using those kind of sources is an important tool for any reporter. the reporter's committee for freedom of the press, which is a nonprofit association has weighed in filing an affidavit in support of jana winter. the committee's chairman tony morrow who by the way is a u.s. supreme court correspondent for the national law journey said, quote, when courts and litigants go after reporter's notes and sources it harms the ability of reporters to receive information in the public interest and that effect chills

mr. holmes has an opportunity to step up to the plate and face his punishment so designed by the d.a.'s office and by the vote of all the victims. >> right after the d.a. announced the death penalty decision, judge william sylvester removed himself from the case citing logistical concerns. he assigned a former denver prosecutor and a graduate of columbine high school. he told holmes' team the longer they wait to change the plea he to not guilty by insanity the tougher it's going to be to convince him because they must show just cause to change it you will remember, holmes made a failed offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence and an insanity plea, shep, will slow the clock. shep? >> shepard: alicia acuna tonight centennial, colorado. a reporter for foxnews.com was also in the courtroom but not to cover the hearing. jana winter broke a story about a notebook that holmes had sent to his psychiatrist. now, his defense attorneys are trying to get winter to reveal her sources. the attorneys claim that her story jeopardized james holmes' right to a fair trial. they also say her

mr. holmes behind bars. by the source that gave jana that information. now, what's happening now is holmes' lawyers, would i call it a fishing expedition, are trying to figure out which law enforcement official leaked this information because they allege that without knowing that, mr. holmes cannot get a fair trial. i don't want to begrudge a fellow lawyer making an aggressive argument, but frankly it's a weak argument. on one hand we have a first amendment problem and over here, a situation that does not require this remedy. >> tucker: in other words, you're saying the public has this information, that fact irks a judge and as a result, he wants to put a reporter in prison? >> well, we hope-- >> that's an outrage. how can that happen in this country? >> it's unfortunately, but hearing not going to happen-- but also holmes' lawyer, aurora the shooter, we need to know who leaked this information otherwise he's not going to get a fair trial. i can't wrap my head around this argument. and from the federal contex

mr. holmes' position that this case would be resolved on april 1. >> the defense has put an interesting amountutor. after all if the d.a. turns them down then they will argue every delay, every one of the many motions hearings to come, it's all because of the prosecutor and his unwillingness to take the death penalty off the table. >> reporter: now holmes' team has also said that it will explore a mental health defense, bill. bill: what else is the prosecution saying? what have they told you? >> reporter: well, normally these kind of plea deals begin behind closed doors. they don't normally happen through court filings. so in a scathing response by the district attorney's office they responded in a filing and in part it read, because there is no legitimate reason to include information about the purported defense, quote, offer in any pleading offer in this case the people question whether this language was included in the defense notice in good faith, or whether it was a calculated attempt to improperly inject the issue of the purported defense offer into the public discourse regarding the cas

mr. holmes -- was to say i don't know if this book, this notebook that the defendant wrote and gave to hisissible in evidence in the case against him. if it's not, then this big dispute about how the reporter, how jana learned about it is irrelevant and i'm goes to dismiss the case against her, and she's not going to go to jail. >>gretchen: what the judge is saying is that he wants to wait and see. it has to do with whether or not the prosecution decides to have this be an insanity case or not; right? >> the prosecution will first decide whether or not they want to seek the death penalty. it seems as though they're going to do that. they haven't definitively decided yet. then the defense has to decide are they going to invoke insanity. if the defense invokes insanity, they have to prove to the jury he was insane at the time of the crime, insane at the time of the trial and insane at the time of the execution. the government will have to prove he was insane at the time of the crime and trial. the defense has not decided whether or not it is going to invoke the insanity defense. if it does,

illness, gee, take a look at adam lanza, take a look at jared loughner, take a look at james holmes, take a look at mrroberts, the man who shot up the mall and murdered two people. and they're crazy and that's the problem, it's not about gender and it's not about race. >> megyn: obviously, there have been, unfortunately, many mass murderers who are not white men. i mean, there's been too many in general and too many people of color and people who are white as well. john alan mohammed, the d.c. sniper, and the man who the shot up virginia tech comes to mind. and the folks expanding on this further, leslie, the wall street journal did an interesting retort to the twins' piece, points out that some of the folks on board with this theory have taken it to another level, suggesting it's white men who commit niece crimes and that it's white men who advocate on behalf of guns in this country because they have another issue, and they cite somebody from buzz flash as saying, and i quote, you won't find anyone willing to dare say much in the media, a good percentage of the white men who oppose gun control of any

mr. murphy: a psychiatrist treating james holmes told campus police a month before the colorado theater attack that holmes had homicidal thoughts and was a danger to the public. holmes also exhibited signs of skets friendia -- schizophrenia. those with mental illness are generally more likely to be the victims rather than perpetrators of violence but those one treated mental illness are at increased risk of violent behavior. 10% of all homicides are committed by individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychotic illnesses. when will we acknowledge that it's not just what's in the killer's hand that makes him dangerous, be it fist, knife or gun, but what is in his mind? we must take off the blinders and acknowledge the importance of diagnosis of mental illness and severe mental illness. let's fix our mental illness system. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> tonight a city i know well, my mother grew up there, my grandfather was

mr. pastor: ilavenue yield one minute -- i'll yield one minute to the gentlelady from washington, d.c., ms. holmes norton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from washington, d.c. is recognized. ms. norton: i thank the gentleman for yielding. congress did not foresee the controllers crisis. they will not foresee the next one. we have not solved the controller's crisis with money. it was not about money. it was not about cuts. it was solved the old-fashioned way. they simply moved money around. this is exactly what was done with appropriations that are not having this crisis. can solve this if we have a meeting of both sides of the aisle on the budget. what would happen at that meeting would probably be not to cut a thing but simply to allow agencies the flexibility to move money around precisely as has been done with the controllers crisis. not one cent was changed, just the flexibility, the common sense that we now need to do with every single appropriation. i yield back and thank the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from iowa is recognized. mr.