home

Court Accepts Jared Loughner's Guilty Pleas

Bump and Update: Here is the plea agreement. His life sentences will be consecutive and he waived his right to appeal.

Live updates from the Arizona Republic on the Jared Loughner competency hearing.

Dr. Christina Pietz, a Bureau of Prisons forensic psychologist, is testifying. She said Loughner has a factual, rational understanding of the role of jury, judge, prosecutors, judicial proceedings. He is now able to orient time and place, he no longer hears voices or other auditory stimuli.

Loughner asked for a job at the prison. He works two jobs. He stamps return addresses on envelopes and rolls towels,tee shirts and underwear for inmates. Pietz said he loves both jobs.

He understands prison is now his life and he will never get out. Pietz says with medication, he would not be a danger to others in the general population, but he could be at risk of being harmed by other inmates.

Loughner is present in court, and has been very still. His mother is also present. Defense attorney Judy Clarke had no questions when Dr. Pietz finished her testimony.

< "Mitt Can't Release His Returns" | Texas Executes Inmate With Mental State of a Child >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    CNN reporting (none / 0) (#1)
    by jbindc on Tue Aug 07, 2012 at 02:44:18 PM EST
    He is found competent to stand trial.

    he is mentally ill, (none / 0) (#2)
    by thereyougo on Tue Aug 07, 2012 at 03:32:43 PM EST
    and is going to prison?

    I don't understand this.

    the world is upside down (none / 0) (#3)
    by diogenes on Tue Aug 07, 2012 at 07:57:27 PM EST
    "Loughner asked for a job at the prison. He works two jobs. He stamps return addresses on envelopes and rolls towels,tee shirts and underwear for inmates. Pietz said he loves both jobs.
    He understands prison is now his life and he will never get out. Pietz says with medication, he would not be a danger to others in the general population, but he could be at risk of being harmed by other inmates."

    Why not spend the next three years in long trials (here and in Arizona state court) to try to get a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity plea?  You could show videotapes after his arrest and his months of forced medication treatment to render him fit for trial and say, as the lawyers do, res ipsa loquator (though it isn't a negligence case).

    This world is upside down when Diogenes is advocating for a defendant's rights only to get slapped down by the majority view on Talkleft.

    Parent

    "Who knows what evil lurks" (none / 0) (#4)
    by fishcamp on Tue Aug 07, 2012 at 08:53:45 PM EST
    in the heart of man"  Why are all these killings happening?  It seems these guys were not totally gun killing crazy mere days before the events.  They must know they are going to be executed or spend the rest of their lives inside.  Is our society degenerating and accelerating at the same time?  I just don't get it.

    Go to Wikipedia (none / 0) (#5)
    by gyrfalcon on Wed Aug 08, 2012 at 12:57:48 PM EST
    and look up "paranoid schizophrenia."

    Parent