Holmes' lawyer, Dan Conway, who has seen the photos, says there are no bullet holes in the body consistent with the machine gun Holmes' was carrying that day. He wants the army to release the photos so he can have a forensic expert review them.
However, the US military says it is worried that releasing the images could incite an anti-American backlash.
The halt would leave time for the lawyer and army prosecutors to argue over the release of photos of the bodies of Afghans allegedly slain by Holmes and his companions.
Defense attorneys and the Army investigating officer in charge of the case have seen the photos, which are said to depict badly mangled corpses, but they are not allowed to have copies of them.
According to Major Kathleen Turner, a spokeswoman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, where the accused soldiers are stationed, the images are "highly sensitive.”
Eugene Fidell, President of the National Institute of Military Justice and a military law lecturer at Yale University, reproached the Army's attempt to conceal the photos from the public eye.
"Stays do not grow on trees," Fidell said Saturday. "You're talking about suspending the trial process, and that's a huge inconvenience to the government.”
Holmes, a member of the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, faced a preliminary hearing last week to determine whether there was enough evidence to send his case to a court martial.
Horrifying details have emerged of how the soldiers executed three Afghan civilians and mutilated their bodies in the Kandahar province between January and May.
There are also reports that the unit in question was plagued by widespread drug use and was under limited supervision from commanders.
One of the soldiers revealed information about the killings in January. But the US army made the first arrests nearly five months later.
Serious questions remain about how the US army has handled the case.
Civilians have been the main victims of the war in Afghanistan, particularly in southern and eastern provinces.
Pundits have been quick to point out that the rise in civilian casualties in NATO attacks has strained relations between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies, who are under increasing pressure at home over the unpopular war.
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