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Because Representative Giffords and Judge John Roll are federal people, federal crimes were committed and the FBI has jurisdiction to enter the case. I’ve done a lot of federal criminal defense work, so this is what’s going to happen.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office will file a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona charging Loughner with at least one felony offense. The Complaint will have an affidavit attached to it, probably drafted by a U.S. Attorney, setting forth facts that the investigation has turned up. Do not expect that the affidavit will contain all of the facts that are known. The Government has to assert sufficient facts to convince a United States Magistrate Judge that there is probable to believe that the defendant committed the crime(s) charged in the Complaint. The affidavit will be drafted with that in mind.
The main location for the district court is in Phoenix, but there is a branch in Tucson. There is an issue in this case regarding the possibility of prejudice against the defendant, since everyone in the federal courthouse in Tucson and probably the other federal courthouses in Arizona know him well. There may be a motion to change venue that probably is a good idea, so be aware of that. They may bring in a federal judge from some other district in the country, probably a Senior Judge (i.e., semi-retired).
The hearing probably will be scheduled for late Monday morning or sometime in the afternoon to permit Loughner and his counsel sufficient time to review the Complaint and Affidavit. I suspect Loughner is unable to retain counsel, therefore, counsel will be appointed to represent him. That will probably be the Federal Public Defender Office in Tucson and they probably will assign two of their lawyers to represent him. . . .
The hearing tomorrow is called an Initial Appearance. Copies of the Complaint & Affidavit will be provided to Loughner and his attorney to review before the hearing starts. The Magistrate Judge will advise Loughner of his legal rights and hear an argument from defense counsel that the affidavit fails to establish probable cause, assuming they want to make an argument, which is unlikely.
The Government also will have prepared a Motion for Detention (bail hearing) and to set a Preliminary Hearing, that probably will be scheduled at the end of the week. Expect Loughner to be detained without bail pending that hearing and that will be that. Probably not more than 10 or 15 minutes.
Prior to the Preliminary Hearing, a U.S. Probation Officer, Pretrial-Release Division, will have to interview Loughner and prepare a report for the court to consider regarding eligibility for pretrial release. Expect the report to recommend detention without bail due to dangerousness and flight risk.
At the Preliminary Hearing, the Government will call a witness, probably the FBI agent who signed the affidavit, to answer a short and sweet set of questions to establish probable cause. Defense counsel will cross-examine, basically to discover as much information as possible about the Government’s case. There probably won’t be any argument about probable cause and the Magistrate Judge will find probable cause. Then the Magistrate Judge will consider the issue of detention. The defense may make a pitch for pretrial release, but don’t expect it because it won’t be granted in a case like this. Loughner will be detained without bail and court “will be in recess.”
During the following week or possibly the week after, depending on when the Grand Jury next meets, the Government will call witnesses and present its case to the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury meets in secret. No judge is present. Neither the defendant nor his counsel is present. Hearsay evidence is admissible. After presenting whatever evidence it decides to present, the Government will ask the Grand Jury to hand down (issue) the proposed indictment. Expect the Grand Jury to hand down the indictment.
After that happens, an arraignment will be scheduled. Expect Loughner to plead not-guilty, because regardless of guilt or innocence, all defendants plead not-guilty at their arraignments. The Magistrate Judge will set a trial date and a deadline to file pretrial motions. The detention order will be continued pending the outcome of the case and the hearing will conclude. Expect that trial date to be continued.
Expect the defense to arrange to have Loughner evaluated by one or more mental health professionals at some point.
[Ed. note: The text of the federal charges can be found at this link. Mason's previous post on grand juries can be found at this link.]
79 Comments
Update: Jared Loughner is charged with Murder, Attempt Murder, and Attempt Murder of a Representative of Congress.
Recc’d. Thank you, Mason.
Thanks for telling us about the procedure. Would be interested to know why hearsay evidence is allowed in the grand jury???
Well, (rather out of practice here, but) the grand jury just needs enough to indict, not to convict. The indictment leads to a trial of fact; that’s where it is necessary to be strict about using rules that make evidence presented as reliable as possible. this is not necessary at grand jury level.
Mason can give you a much better explanation; I have practiced criminal law, but it has been quite awhile.
Mason – a question: might the Tucson PD request some other defense counsel be appointed? They must have had pretty close relations with Judge Roll, as well, might even, in such a relatively small city, have been friends with him. Might they not have a conflict as well?
I worked for federal magistrates here in San Antonio while the appeals were in process for the man convicted of murdering Western Dist. Judge Wood, but missed the trial. Never thought to ask about his defense – come to think of it, he may have had private counsel. Certainly for his appeals, since his son was able to pay for it by then.
Not guilty by reason of insanity?
Murder of a federal judge is a DP offense. The only question is whether D is insane.
The rules of evidence do not apply, defense counsel is not present to object to any of te questions asked, and there is no judge to rule on an objection — assuming defense counsel were present and objected to a question.
Much of the evidence is presented in summary fashion by the law enforcement officer in charge of the investigation. This is especially true of other law enforcement officers and the results of any forensic testing. Civilian witnesses, whose testimony is critical to the case usually are called to testify and the same is true of snitch testimony.
not gonna happen. IMO
What does DP stand for?
Well, it’ll be the Federal Public Defender rather than the Tucson public defender, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right. I think it’ll be their call to make. I imagine the lawyers will disclose the nature of their personal relationships with the judge, if any, and let the client decide. Or they might just reach out to the Phoenix office for help.
Another possibility would be to appoint private counsel off the CJA Panel. The CJA Panel is a list of lawyers, who by reason of knowledge, experience, and willingness to take appointed cases at the federal rates are appointed whenever the Federal Defender can’t take a case due to a conflict of interest or they’re just too overloaded.
This case probably will go death penalty, and if it does, Mr. Louchner will be entitled to two lawyers, an investigator, and any reasonably necessary expert witnesses to present a defense.
Since the SODDI defense isn’t available (some other dude did it), mental health issues will be the key to the trial. Does he have the mental capacity to premeditate or form intent to kill, for example? The answer to that question will be the key issue in the guilt phase of the trial, and if the Government does seek the death penalty and persuades the jury to convict Mr. Louchner, the issue will come up again in penalty phase as mitigation evidence. That is, evidence that calls for a life-without-parole sentence (LWOP) instead of the death penalty.
It’s too early to say for certain, but like the vast majority of death penalty cases, I think this case is going to come down to a single issue; namely, does he get the death penalty or life without parole?
This is an awful gut wrenching case and the lawyers who represent this young man will not have any time to do anything else for the next 18-2 months.
Nope.
Hi greenwarrior,
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Please email me so I may respond to your request. centralcoasthousing at hotmail dot com.
you’ve got mail
No, the issues are:
(1) will the Government seek the death penalty;
(2) if so, can it prove the requisite level of intent to convict Mr. Louchner of a death penalty eligible offense; and
(3) if so, can it convince the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Louchner’s mental state, together with any other relevant factors including the exercise of mercy, doesn’t sufficiently mitigate the crime he was convicted of committing, such that he should be sentenced to death instead of life without parole?
The insanity defense has basically been abolished in the U.S., and it was never worth a damn anyway because, with the exception of a few states that used the insane delusion test, a defendant could be totally freaking insane in the ordinary sense of that word and still not meet the definition of insanity, if he could tell right from wrong. Any evidence that he knew killing people was wrong would be sufficient to negate the defense.
Before we get too far down the road, we have take a look at the elements of the murder count. For example, does the Government have to prove that Mr. Louchner knew that one of the men whom he shot and killed was a federal judge?
I doubt he knew that.
Congresswoman Giffords may not survive, however, and if she doesn’t, he apparently knew she was a member of Congress.
DP = death Penalty
Here’s a link to the Complaint and the Affidavit that I referred to up top.
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/loughner-complaint.pdf
Mason, I have read the Complaint and affidavit and there is no mention of the victims that were not government employees. What about the little girl and the women? Will he also be charged in Satate court?
Right now, as I see it he does not have to answer to the deaths of the girl and the older women. Will this change?
Not Mason but my SWAG is that the fed charges are strictly for those such as the Congresswoman, her aide and the judge whose injuries and deaths fall under Fed statutes.
The state charges should still be available for filing later (in case the Feds manage to feck it all up somehow)
Okay, thx.
I re-read the complaint. Safe deposit box letters. Seems to me he is fucked and far from home.
Great diary Mason. Rec’d.
Any Chance he will be charged by the Feds with a hate crime he read a hate groups news letter and killed the first Jewish Congresswoman from AZ.
If he has connections to a political group the Tea Party, a Hate group, Sarah Palin’s fan club etc anyone calling for violence against the government would he face terrorism charges.
Can we get the group on RICO charges? I want the guys who finance hate!
Just to add…thank you for such clear information. I never understand the animus about lawyers…good work.
Will the Feds protect this guy in prison? The Aryan Nation Prison gang will either adopt him or silence him.
The charging language in the Complaint relative to killing Judge Roll, is that Mr. Louchner killed him as the judge was performing his official duties.
The affidavit states that Judge Roll and Congresswoman Giffords had been working together on ways to reduce the court’s backlog of cases and that he went to the meet and greet to talk to one of her assistants, John Barber, regarding that matter. Barber was shot and wounded (see Count 5). Judge Roll was shot and died (See Count 3). The Government has a videotape that shows the two of them talking just before the shooting. Therefore, at this point the Government is relying on that conversation as the basis for proving that the judge was killed during the performance of his official duties.
The Government also served a search warrant on Mr. Loughner’s apartment. They found a safe and when they opened it they found “an envelope with handwriting on the envelope stating ‘I planned ahead,’ and ‘My assassination’ and the name ‘Giffords,’ along with what appears to be Loughner’s signature.”
They also found a letter dated August 30, 2007, addressed to “Mr. Jared Laughney” at the same address where the search warrant was served thanking him for attending a “Congress on your Corner” event at the Foothills Mall in Tucson.
The gun was recovered at the scene. It was a Glock semi-automatic pistol that Loughner purchased on November 30, 2010, from Sportsman’s Warehouse in Tucson. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) confirmed the purchase by store receipts and video, among other evidence.
I did not see any reference to right wing hate literature in the affidavit (which doesn’t mean that they didn’t find any, as they might be holding that back).
That would be one of the questions that I certainly wouldn’t forget to ask at the Preliminary Hearing.
And you as well.
Mason,
I left a comment for you on the Canfield thread at 5:56 p.m. yesterday before it disappeared.
Curious, is it still possible to post comments on that thread?
Timothy Mc Vey was a spoil sport. He never confessed only quoted ” Invictus ” to Gore Vidal. He dismissd his own appeal thereby putting the government in the non-politically correct place of hanging a man who has no objection to the proceedings. His super [?] lawyer the alledged genius with the cowboy hat spent all his time trying to get Timmie to cop. All he had to do was ask the FBI head man, ” After you found out Mc Vey`s car had no tag,did you get about 100 volunteers and walk back the Inter State in Oklahoma City looking for it.?” They didn`t do that, his lawyer never brought it up.It was obvious to me from the start that guilty or not Mc Vey was a patsy. Would somebody smart enough to pull off a super nova be dumb enough to knowingly drive up his escape route with a car with no tag. If they found it they could say it fell off. If they didn`t find it they could say some bum picked it up for scrap metal or to put on another car.They did neither which screams out they were hiding something. This geek could well have been someboy`s loose cannon used to not kill the Congress woman but the judge. Since Obama sent the head man from the FBI to run things, they will be screwed up and we will have an OJ farce played out again.
Zenostoa
The presence of the “envelope with handwriting on the envelope stating ‘I planned ahead,’ and ‘My assassination’ and the name ‘Giffords,’ along with what appears to be Loughner’s signature,” appears to settle the premeditated intent issue. That and the letter from Congresswoman Giffords addressed to him dated August 30, 2007, thanking him for attending one of her meet and greets, plus the purchase of the gun a month before the shooting certainly appears to conclusively establish that he went to the meet and greet intending to kill her and anyone else. Given the circumstances of how he was stopped in the process of loading a fresh clip into his gun, it looks like he intended to go on shooting and perhaps commit suicide after finishing everyone off.
This is an absolutely terrible story that brings back an awful lot of bad memories.
I’ll stay on it, however.
I think so, although I haven’t checked it since this morning. Click on “Canfield Astrology Challenge at the bottom left of this page and it will take you to the diary. I’ll check it too.
I wish we had a way to exchange messages backstage on this site. I hope they add that feature so that we don’t have to leave messages for people in comments.
The letter would prove intent so murder 1 death penalty but when can we find out what he wrote on the letter? Also did insane boy work or who paid his bills is my next question safe’s are not cheap.
Computer access from the library, a friend who is probably racist or is he independently wealthy?
Can we see his Myspace friends list I’m sure there will be a few interesting people on his friends list.
Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, the Minute Men, Glen Beck? How can we get to see his Myspace friends list?
Mason,
I think with this shooting as a country we are dealing with the aftermath of the Saturn/Uranus opposition, along with the current Uranus, Pluto square. Loughner’s birthdate is 9.10.88. Transiting Saturn squared his natal Saturn/Uranus conjunction during the period when the disturbances at the college occurred last year. Right now transiting Uranus is squaring that conjunction. So, he was/is particularly impacted first by the Saturn transit and now by Uranus. Given the Saturn/Uranus and Uranus/Pluto transits, we are living in unusually turbulent times. People who are fragile or unstable are likely to go over the edge. I think it’s important to be our brother’s keeper during such times.
Thanks much for the link. I’ll check it.
I’m sorry about the messages. I thought there was no other way.
Oh, yes. Comments are still open.
I have reached the point where, as far as I’m concerned, no answer from Kelly is an answer, but I’m not planning on making a big deal about it and throwing a ticker-tape parade for us. It’s enough that he knows, or should know that he was wrong and Astrology works.
Heh.
Don’t need to check. I posted it here. Where to post is somewhat confusing.
Ahem…Assuming facts not in evidence. Other events happened yesterday, which sort of pushed the astrology thing to the background.
I asked the “recipient” to rate 1 – 10 on your chart characterization. Short answer “A 4 on a good day.”
I’ll make a full response on that other thread shortly.
Great when can we expect another round of nut case shootings? Do political lone nut killings and their copycats correspond to astrology bad days? Dave at Crooks and Liars researches the hate groups he can give you days they attack people.
TCU,
TCU,
We’re living in a time that is similar to the 1960s, which was an unusually turbulent time as well. But, it was also a remarkably creative period in our cultural history. Think of the music that came out of that period. The revolution in science, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement. We went to the Moon!
If you want to know my response to your question about correspondences between human events and astrology, you can read my comment on January 5th, @10:43 a.m. of Mason’s thread here: http://my.firedoglake.com/mason/2011/01/04/powerful-and-favorable-astrological-influences-today/#comments
Can this be deleted? I don’t know what happened here.
Mod: Would you be kind enough to remove peony’s email address at 3:59 pm? We’ve connected now.
Here are the two federal statutes that Jared Loughner is charged with violating in connection with the death of Judge John Roll:
§ 1111. Murder
(a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human
being with malice aforethought. Every murder
perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any
other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and
premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration
of, or attempt to perpetrate, any
arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage,
sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual
abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery; or
perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of
assault or torture against a child or children; or
perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully
and maliciously to effect the death of any
human being other than him who is killed, is
murder in the first degree.
Any other murder is murder in the second degree.
(b) Within the special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction of the United States,
Whoever is guilty of murder in the first degree
shall be punished by death or by imprisonment
for life;
Whoever is guilty of murder in the second degree,
shall be imprisoned for any term of years
or for life.
§ 1114. Protection of officers and employees of
the United States
Whoever kills or attempts to kill any officer
or employee of the United States or of any agency
in any branch of the United States Government
(including any member of the uniformed
services) while such officer or employee is engaged
in or on account of the performance of official
duties, or any person assisting such an officer
or employee in the performance of such duties
or on account of that assistance, shall be
punished—
(1) in the case of murder, as provided under
section 1111;
For more information on the grand jury, here’s a link to a diary that I wrote several months ago entitled, Grand Jury 101.
http://my.firedoglake.com/mason/2010/10/06/grand-jury-101/
I’m afraid I’m going to have to wait until tomorrow to read Rick’s article. I’ve been working the Jared Loughner case and need to get some rest.
I briefly skimmed his article, but I’m so tired that I’m losing focus and my parrot is ordering me to roost.
Thanks, again.
Nighty nite.
Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva are both Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Arizona. On Tuesday January 4 the number of hits on the “Gabrielle Giffords” page on Wikipedia began to rise. The number of hits on the “Raul Grijalva” page did not. By Friday January 7 more than three times as many people were looking at Gabrielle Giffords’s Wikipedia page than had done so in a normal day in the previous month and a half.
On Saturday January 8, of course, six people were murdered in the course of the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords.
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/01/i-would-very-much-like-an-alternative-explanation-of-this.html
Uh maybe the Feds can use that internet tracking software and find out because this seems like fore knowledge and a large conspiracy.
I wrote this on Eli’s thread today what do you think conspiracy? Can the Feds now use their Net spying programs to find all the guys who looked up Gabby before the shooting this smells like a large conspiracy to overthrow the government.
I think we might be able to look at bad astrology days and GOP killing sprees and find what stars really make the GOP loose it. I’m saying science would call this proof but it would be interesting if we got a 70% or more correlation.
Thank you, Mason.
Greatly appreciate your presence here at FDL.
DW
I’ll add this link to the end of your post in the editor’s note. Thanks for the reminder.
For the longer term. . . This may be a capital punishment case.
That would put the Justice Dep’t in sort of a bind.
Choosing to pursue such would undercut the feds’ opposition to any death penalty invoked by any state, which I think would be a long term goal (i.e., eliminate it under any circumstances nation wide).
On the other hand not pursuing capital punishment would tend to diminish the magnitude of this crime (assuming he’s found sane and guilty). That would present an array of its own problems, regardless of how one feels about that penalty. Just having it on the books creates other such problems.
Rayne,
You have a tough job herding cats with agendas here at the lake, cleaning up spills left behind by people who get carried away (including me), and separating uncivil combatants. I don’t believe it’s possible for a human being to do your job without getting called out and dumped on by somebody with a gripe. So, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for what you do out here in the pit and what you do in the background professionalizing our work product. You truly are Wonder Woman and we are lucky to have you.
Thank you for all that you do.
WOW — talk about nut cases — overthrowing the government ??
There is an extremely interesting federal death penalty issue that no one has mentioned yet, so far as I can tell, and that is whether the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jared Loughner knew that Gabriel Zimmerman (see Count 2) was “an employee of the United States who was engaged in the performance of official duties and who was assisting Member of Congress Gabrielle Giffords while she was engaged in her performance of official duties,”
and Judge John Roll (see Count 3) was “a United States District Court Judge “engaged in the performance of official duties” when he shot them.
Based on the letters the FBI found in the safe at his residence, the Government certainly can prove that he knew Gabrielle Giffords was a Congresswoman engaged in the performance of her official duties when he shot her at the meet and greet. However, she is still alive so the federal death penalty is not a potential sentence that he faces. Of course, that will change if she does not survive.
I’m going to do a little more research into this issue and then post a diary about it, but it looks like the Government will not be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew those things when he shot and killed them. That is, the Government need only prove that he shot and killed them with malice aforethought, pursuant to 18 USC Section 1111, and the element that they were federal officials engaged in the performance of their official duties when he shot and killed them (see 18 USC Section 1114) is a federal jurisdictional issue rather than a mens rea, or intent issue. See, for example, United States v. Feola, 420 U. S. 671 (1975).
However, assuming Louchner did not know that Gabriel Zimmerman was a federal employee assisting Congresswoman Giffords in the performance of her official duties and Judge John Roll was a federal judge engaged in the performance of his official duties, he could still claim and almost certainly will claim in a penalty phase that he did not know those things and that is a sufficient mitigating factor to warrant a life without parole sentence, instead of the death penalty. At the very least, if I were representing him, I would consider making that argument, along with an argument to the effect that it’s not right to kill crazy people, in order to save his life, assuming such evidence exists. This is why, from a strategic point of view, a defense mental health evaluation is so important.
Stay tuned.
Things,
I always respect what you say, but I think there is a greater danger facing us. Glenn Greenwald has a post today that fleshes out what I said in a comment yesterday here at the lake. In his trademark exhaustively thorough manner, Glenn points out that the Government is engaged in a widespread systematic and extremely determined illegitimate effort to intimidate legitimate criticism and dissent. He also makes the point that the Government’s actions represent a much greater threat to us than anything Jared Louchner may have done.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
Thanks, DeeDub. I always enjoy reading your comments.
BTW, how are you doing? Have you recovered from the injuries you sustained in that awful traffic accident? I sure hope so.
Best wishes and Happy New Year.
M
You be berry berry welcome. I get a wee bit prickly and defensive when people start dissing criminal defense lawyers, which is not to say that there aren’t more than a few incompetent and alarmingly bad ones, but our basic function in the legal system is to keep the system honest. When we fail to vigorously represent our clients within the boundaries of the rule of law, the system is inevitably compromised, eroded, and cheapened by cronyism and corruption. One need only look at the ever increasing number of wrongfully convicted innocent people who have been freed from prison by exculpatory post-conviction DNA tests to realize that our criminal justice system isn’t working.
The causes of wrongful convictions are:
1. Mistaken eyewitness testimony;
2. Forensic fraud;
3. Police misconduct;
4. Prosecutorial misconduct;
5. Ineffective assistance of counsel;
6. False confessions; and
7. Perjured testimony by jailhouse snitches.
Notice that each of these causes is not unique to cases in which there is biological evidence available to test. When the Department of Justice at the behest of Attorney General Janet Reno surveyed all of the public and private labs that did DNA testing in the United States, it found that all of the labs reported that they exculpated the primary suspect in 22% of the cases that were submitted to them for testing.
I still shudder with dread at the scope of the problem when I think of all of the people in prison who were convicted in cases in which there was no biological evidence to test.
Our criminal justice system is irretrievably broken and what little justice it produces is due to effective assistance of defense counsel.
I love it, Mason, that you’re explaining how this all works in a respectful way and in language we can understand given that most of us here don’t have a legal or criminal proceedings background. Thank you.
I do too, but you’re jumping the gun, so to speak. First, we need to investigate to see if there is sufficient evidence to confirm our suspicions.
Thanks, this has been quite a rollercoaster ride starting with my piece on the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which was just a few days ago, and now this terrible shooting has forced me to switch back into Saturn’s domain, Law World. And I haven’t had an opportunity to consider Peony’s comment upthread in which she said,
“I think with this shooting as a country we are dealing with the aftermath of the Saturn/Uranus opposition, along with the current Uranus, Pluto square. Loughner’s birthdate is 9.10.88. Transiting Saturn squared his natal Saturn/Uranus conjunction during the period when the disturbances at the college occurred last year. Right now transiting Uranus is squaring that conjunction. So, he was/is particularly impacted first by the Saturn transit and now by Uranus. Given the Saturn/Uranus and Uranus/Pluto transits, we are living in unusually turbulent times. People who are fragile or unstable are likely to go over the edge. I think it’s important to be our brother’s keeper during such times.”
I think she’s right because it confirms a study that I did several years ago, but I want to review my work and consider this matter carefully, including comparing Louchner’s natal chart to the transits in effect at the time of the shooting. That review probably will merit another diary.
Meanwhile, I’m pretty uniquely qualified to comment on this case, since I was a death-penalty lawyer.
Look out below! Schizophrenia here I come.
“I think she’s right because it confirms a study that I did several years ago, but I want to review my work and consider this matter carefully, including comparing Louchner’s natal chart to the transits in effect at the time of the shooting. That review probably will merit another diary.”
I am looking forward to that diary, Mason ~ do take your time, though. No worries. No rush.
Does anyone know which, the state (which may be filed in the next several days) or federal case against Loughner, would go to trial first? Is there a normal practice?
The normal practice in a case like this is dictated by the feds. They jumped in with both feet asserting federal jurisdiction and they will keep the case until they’re finished with it. Arizona will have to wait.
The issue in this case is not whether Jared Louchner is acquitted or convicted; the issue is whether he lives or dies.
The CNN interview with Louchner’s math instructor at Pima Community College was quite interesting. He said he had Louchner kicked out of school for disrupting classes yelling something about his First Amendment rights being violated, bothering other students, and writing Mayhem Fest across the top of a math quiz. Louchner was told that he couldn’t return unless he was seen by a mental health professional who said he was safe to return to school. He never came back. The instructor said he and the students were not surprised when they found out he was the shooter.
In the why am I not surprised department, CNN is using a photograph of Louchner with long hair that looks like a high school yearbook photo in which he looks very young. Louchner appeared bald in court today.
Guess what? Louchner registered to vote as a Republican.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs789.ash1/167904_1660010654495_1064021475_31564890_2319905_n.jpg
As we all know, hippies are all Republicans.
Of course, Fed PD is what I meant, Tucson office, though I see it ain’t what I said.
Looks like that’s happening, since Judy Clarke seems to have been at least interim appointed. Based on Jane’s liveblog of Loughner’s hearing, it seems they said something like – we might have a conflict, too.
Mason,
I don’t know if you have time to read this post. If not, the point is what Loughner is saying about us collectively as a country.
How many times have there been alienated loners opening fire and killing people? Collectively, we shun people like Loughner who are desperately in need of caring intervention. In a way, Loughner personifies our collective illness. But it’s convenient to scapegoat people like him.
Mental Health in the United States of Alienation
http://warincontext.org/2011/01/10/mental-health-in-the-united-states-of-alienation/
That’s odd. According to this article, he registered as an independent on September 29 2006, according to Pima County Registrar of Voters.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/house/jared-lee-loughner-was-a-regis.html
I believe you’re right. I got suckered by a photo shopped plant.
I just spoke with Karen at the Pima County Recorder’s Office in Tucson, AZ. She confirmed that Jared Loughner first registered to vote in 2006, as an independent. He registered again as an independent in 2008 and didn’t register in 2010.
This is the same info that was published in the Arizona Daily Star on Jan 9 and in the Washington Post on Jan 10.
The legal issue may be as you say. ‘The’ issue is another thing altogether. Society should not be in the business of punishing crazy people for doing things they would not do ‘in their right minds’.
But, our society and government has chosen its dark path.
A gruesome competition between the Feds and Arizona, over which will have the privilege of killing the paranoid schizophrenic?
As far as I’m concerned, American Exceptionalism means we are extremely good at demonizing others and extremely bad at self-reflection. We’re like a bull careening around a china shop destroying everything in sight and then we blame the shop owner for the damage claiming that he failed to adequately protect the merchandise which wouldn’t have been damaged, if only he had entrusted it to us for safekeeping.
One of the most shameful things in our nation’s growing list of shameful things that it does to its citizens is the lack of treatment and services for the mentally ill. Did you know, for example, that the biggest facility for the mentally ill is the Los Angeles County Jail? We have 3.5 million people who are homeless and one of the largest groups within that population is the mentally ill. Abandoned and disowned by their families and unable to find work or hold down a job, they go from the streets to the county jails and back to the streets in a never ending cycle until they die or end up in prison convicted of a violent offense and sentenced to a lot of time, life without parole, or death.
According to Human Rights Watch, we incarcerate more people than any other nation on earth, even though violent crime rates have been decreasing since 1980. At the end of 2008, for example, 2.4 million people were incarcerated in federal and state penitentiaries. The official rate of incarceration reported by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics at the end of 2008 is 754 per 100,000. In fact, 1 out of every 100 adults has served prison time. More than half of the people in prison were convicted of nonviolent offenses. Even though the United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, it incarcerates 23.4% of the world’s prison population. In stark contrast, consider the incarceration rate per 100,000 in the following countries: United Kingdom (153), Australia (129), China (119), Canada (116), France (96), Italy (92), and Germany (88). The racial composition of the prison population in the United States suggests that racism plays a significant role in determining who goes to prison. Although 12% of the population is African American, they make up 44% of the prison population.
It costs around $30 K per year to house and feed a prisoner, or $72 billion per year. And now the right wing wants to re-institute debtor’s prisons. In these days of faux right wing whining and hand wringing over the budget deficit (except when it comes to tax cuts for the rich) and the demand for serious austerity measures in the form of deep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, and the elimination of what little remains of the safety net, can anyone seriously doubt that some people on the right have been privately discussing a “final solution” to the escalating cost of housing and feeding our prison population?
After all, the United States absolutely must courageously continue to wage aggressive wars against the civilian populations of foreign nations that lack military forces in order to steal their natural resources like oil and natural gas. And, of course, with close to 30 million unemployed or underemployed and few available jobs, our progressive president decides that the best thing to do is to give the safety net a serious austerity-type haircut (that ironically matches Loughner’s bald booking photo) as he promotes policies that encourage U.S. corporations to outsource even more jobs.
I think it’s way past time to ask who the truly crazy people are.
America, look in the mirror!
Thanks for the information. I wish people with big picture agendas would stop screwing with the few facts that are available to the public.
You won’t get any disagreement from me about that. See my rant below in response to peony’s comment.
No kidding.
That he’s registered independent actually seems to me to fit better. I think he probably did read all those books and that he didn’t trust/like authority. I personally believe he was also influenced by all the rabidness from the right.
Excellent rant. The severe deprivation of homelessness is a cause of mental illness as well as a result. Very ugly stuff we’ve been sweeping under the rug for a long time.
BTW, when and if people point accusatory glances at Loughner’s parents, they should keep in mind how few options there are in the U.S. when a loved one is mentally ill, for people who don’t have an overabundance of money and time. He lived at home, I assume they fed him and kept him clothed, and I bet they tried to find him treatment (which he likely refused) . . .