Colorado’s laws for insanity pleas do not violate the U.S. Constitution, the judge in the Aurora movie theater shooting murder case has ruled.

The judge’s order clears up the last disputed issues around a tendered insanity plea for theater shooting suspect James Holmes. Judge Carlos Samour, who issued Wednesday’s ruling, is expected to decide at a hearing on Friday whether to accept Holmes’ insanity plea.

Attorneys for Holmes argued that the state’s laws on insanity pleas violated Holmes’ rights against self-incrimination.

The laws require defendants pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to cooperate in a court-ordered independent psychiatric evaluation. If defendants do not cooperate, they will be barred from calling any mental-health experts of their own to testify on their behalf at trial — or at a death-penalty sentencing hearing.

Holmes’ attorneys said the laws amounted to a compulsion to confess. They also said the law hurts Holmes’ rights to due process because evidence of noncooperation could be used against him. “[I]t is well settled and fundamental that a defendant may not be penalized for the exercise of his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent,” Holmes’ attorneys wrote in a motion earlier this year.

But Samour ruled Wednesday that Colorado’s law requiring cooperation in the evaluation is needed to maintain a level playing field.

“[I]f the defendant fails to cooperate with the examination, the prosecution is placed at a severe disadvantage when attempting to rebut psychiatric evidence presented by the defendant,” Samour wrote in his order.

Without the cooperation provision, Samour wrote, “it is difficult to imagine a rational and equitable administration of the death penalty in Colorado in a case involving a(n insanity) plea.”

Before Samour can decide whether to accept an insanity plea from Holmes, he must first advise Holmes of the consequences of making such a plea — including the requirement for cooperation in a psychiatric evaluation. By challenging the constitutionality of the state’s insanity-plea rules, Holmes’ lawyers threw the proposed contents of Samour’s advisement into doubt. By resolving the dispute on Wednesday, Samour cleared the way for Friday’s hearing. If Samour accepts Holmes’ insanity plea, the required evaluation could add months of delay to the case.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold