Justice System

I received an email news alert the other day that threw me off.  It was regarding James Holmes, the person convicted of killing 12, plus wounding 70 more, at an Aurora, CO movie theater a couple years ago.

Holmes had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2012 shootings. He was convicted last month of 24 counts of first-degree murder – two for each of the slain victims.

Two for each of the slain victims is what threw me off. To me it is strange that someone can be charged, and even convicted, of committing the exact same crime twice at the exact same time. Is there any real benefit to double charging someone in this manner? The only thing that comes to mind is to be able to increase the punishment, but I think a better solution would be to work on making the punishment fit the crime over double charging and convicting a criminal to get the desired outcome.