Monday, January 24, 2011
Jared Loughner Pleas Not Guilty
Loughner, who shot and killed 6 people in Tucson, Arizona, faced arraignment today in Phoenix. Unsure of Loughner's mental capacity, U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns entered a plea of not guilty on Loughner's behalf.
Loughner is charged with attempted murder of Giffords and two of her assistants. He is not being charged with the death of the 6 victims, including Arizona chief federal judge John Roll at this time. However, more charges are likely to follow. The next court hearing is scheduled for March 9th and will most likely be held in Tucson so that the court may be closer to victims and witnesses.
It is very likely that Loughner will plead not guilty for reason of insanity on all charges that he faces. However, prosecutors may enter a plea deal if he agrees to plead guilty. Loughner is likely to escape the death penalty.
Meanwhile, Giffords has recently been moved to a rehabilitation center in Texas. She is currently in the Intensive Care Unit because there is fluid in her brain that the doctors are draining. However, she is doing well so far and recieves occupation, physical and speech therapy daily. It is unknown whether she will be able to talk at this time.
What do you guys think about Loughner pleading guilty to attempted murder?? Do you think that he will "get off easy" because of his mental issues?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I am fine with Loghner pleading either way in this case. Regardless of what he says, he will have to pay severe consequences for his gruesome actions. I wouldn't be too concerned about whether he receives the death penalty or not--both life imprisonment and the death penalty effectively serve the same purpose. All I can say is that nobody else will have to lose their life because of Loughner, no matter how crazy or sane he is.
I was told earlier that Loughner's lawyer is well-known for working with insanity cases. While I do not always think that insanity is an appropriate verdict (seeing as how results from tests can be easily manipulated), I think there is probably more to his crime than a mental disorder. In any case, like Peter, as long as Loughner suffers for his crime accordingly, then that whatever he chooses to plea is not of great concern for me.
This piece of news leaves me with several questions.
How is it possible for a judge to enter a plea on one side's behalf? Perhaps I'm just ignorant but court affairs, but isn't the judge supposed to be neutral? Why doesn't the defendant's attorney submit the plea?
I know CNN isn't the most unbiased news source in the world, but hearing about the differences in Loughner's behavior in his two court appearances is disturbing. It seems like his "disgusting, smug smile" shows that he understands what's going on and is satisfied with his situation. I'm wondering how the court gets away with justifying his not guilty plea by saying that his lack of ability to understand his circumstances is not a present concern but could be one in the future. Does that seem vague and unsupported to anybody else?
Finally, how is he not charged with the murders of the other six victims? Is it because they cannot find enough evidence that he targeted these people, while it is clear that Giffords was his target?
I think that Loughner should not get off guilty. Even if he is considered "insane" and gets off the death penalty, then he should at least be sentenced to a life sentence. I don't know much about how long you get sent away for from atempted murder or the other 6 charges of murder but i feel that he should be locked up for life.
I pretty much agree with all of you guys. Loughner does has major problems and he should death penalty. Just because your crazy does not mean you should shoot up a bunch just because you do not like them or their beliefs. The scary part is he wrote to her and the Senator knew about him because of the immigration incident. A little kid died, shes in hospital I believe and a few other people died. That is horrible. I think the gun laws shall be tweaked now that it affected Congress, one of their own especially. That is not fair though. I am crazy but but it is not like I am going to go around hurting people or doing stupid stuff. One more thing, if you have been arrested your rights are tweaked. Guns are horrible.
Loughner is insane. Straight up crazy and has some psychological problems. How often is it that you hear someone go on a rampage and kill 6 innocent people including a chief federal judge and a US House of Representative? His plead of not guilty is just another reason why he's insane and doesn't deserve to be free in society. He'll definitely not "get off" easy with his mental issues because he caused a nationwide tragedy that will be remembered for decades to come. As for Gabby Giffords, the whole country hopes that she will get better and recover.
Post a Comment