Prosecutors in Boulder, Colorado, told a jury that Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was perfectly sane when he whipped out a gun at a grocery store in 2021 killing 10 shoppers.
He was not crazy, according to the state, but a criminal who knew what he was doing and knew it was wrong. This opening statement was quickly jumped on by Alissa’s defense lawyer; there has been contention over Alissa’s sanity and fitness to stand trial since the mass murder, and that looks set to continue over the likely three weeks of his trial.
Alissa’s lawyer Samuel Dunn gave the opposite message in his opening statement, describing his client as “an ill individual.” Dunn contends that Alissa has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and experiences hallucinations. He claimed Alissa was hearing voices from people who were not there, and believed he was being pursued right before he opened fire at the King Sooper supermarket.
Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. This is a very difficult defense strategy to put over, despite its popularity in fictional courtroom dramas. Several sources say the approach only succeeds for defendants in about 1 percent of cases.
For the most part, the “insanity” test in a court is straightforward, and it has little or nothing to do with whether the accused hallucinates or is disconnected from reality. For the purposes of legal innocence or guilt, “insanity” means only that the defendant did not know right from wrong at the time of the alleged crime. And that’s just what the prosecution argued.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told the jury that Alissa knew right from wrong and was “therefore sane.”
Alissa is facing 10 counts of murder, plus 15 charges of attempted murder, among other offenses. The slaying took place in Boulder, which is about a half hour’s drive north of Denver.
So far no one, including his own defense attorney, has put forward a motive for Alissa’s deadly rampage.
The killings were all over within one minute. Alissa shot at shoppers both inside and outside the store. Prosecutor Dougherty said he went to some trouble to go back and kill the people that he had already wounded.
Alissa first shot eight people and then went through the store looking for others. He killed two more people, including Boulder copy Eric Talley, who left behind seven children.
