A jury has decided that the death penalty should remain an option for the Colorado movie theatre shooter James Holmes.

The decision clears the way for a last plea from both sides.

After those arguments, the jury will make its final decision on whether the 27-year-old should die by lethal injection or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Holmes shot dead 12 people and injured 70 in the July 2012 attack.

The same jury last month convicted Holmes of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 2012 attack at a suburban Denver movie theatre, rejecting the defence claim that mental illness had so affected his mind that he could not tell right from wrong.