You are missing a lot of facts from your statement.  Holmes was seen by multiple doctors, ALL of which came to the same conclusion - that he is severely mentally ill.  Colorado has never been a big DP state.  Since 1977 when the DP was reinstituted in CO, we have executed 1 person, and there was no argument about that person being mentally ill.  So, getting a death conviction in CO is already difficult because the culture in this state is fairly liberal on that issue.  Add on top of that that there was no question by ANY of the experts at trial that he was/is mentally ill, and also add on top of that that the defense offered to Brauchler a life sentence - and you can see Brauchler rolled the dice, and lost.  The fact of the matter is, Brauchler taking the case to trial caused much more notoriety for Holmes than anything else.  I would bet more people know who Holmes is, than who any of the victims were.  And thats really really depressing.