MOSCOW, August 10 - RAPSI. Public defender Daniel King emphasized during a hearing held Thursday that his client James Holmes, who stands accused of carrying out a mass shooting in a Colorado theater that left 12 dead and 58 injured on July 20, is suffering from a mental illness for which he sought treatment prior to the shooting, Reuters reported.

The judge will consider the arguments heard during Thursday’s proceedings, and will issue a written statement at a later date.

A hearing was held Thursday to weigh the balance between transparency and fair-trial guarantees in the case, which has attracted enormous media scrutiny.

A group of nearly 20 major media outlets jointly filed a motion with the court to unseal Holmes’ case file. According to the motion, the petitioners were particularly interested in affidavits of probable cause and in all pleadings that have been entered in the case. The petitioners contend that the rights both of the public to information about criminal justice, and of the news media to provide that information are protected by the federal and state constitutions, as well as by the common law. According to the motion, the sealing of Holmes’ case file “violates the public’s constitutional right of access to the records of criminal prosecutions, and undermines our nation’s firm commitment to the transparency and public accountability of the criminal justice system.”

Holmes was formally charged last Monday with 24 counts of first degree murder, 116 counts of attempted first degree murder, one count of possession of explosives, and one count of violence in connection with the mass shooting. The charges were laid out in an official complaint filed with the court by District Attorney Carol Chambers.

Prosecutors filed two first-degree murder charges for each of the 12 victims that lost their lives as a result of the attack. The first 12 charges claim that Holmes committed the murders “after deliberation, and with the intent to cause the death of a person other than himself.” The second 12 claim that Holmes, “under circumstances evidencing an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life generally, knowingly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to persons other than himself, and thereby caused the death” of each such victim. The prosecution filed attempted murder charges under both first-degree murder theories outlined above for each of the 58 injured victims as well.

Pretrial proceedings for the case of the People of the State of Colorado v. James Holmes are currently underway in the Arapahoe County Court for the 18th judicial district. The prosecution is currently being led by District Attorney Carol Chambers, and Holmes is currently being represented by public defenders Tamara Brady and Daniel King.