Apparently, Jared Loughner is crazy:
TUCSON — A federal judge Wednesday agreed with two doctors that suspected Tucson shooter Jared Loughner is not competent to stand trial, and he will be hospitalized in a facility in Springfield, Mo., to receive treatment.
Loughner will not be released from custody while he is being treated, and he could remain hospitalized indefinitely if he does not get well but is determined to be a danger to himself or others, according to those familiar with federal law.
The goal is for Loughner, charged with shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing six others on Jan. 8, to voluntarily take medications that his doctors will prescribe for him so his competency is restored and he can face charges, said Robbie Sherwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The next competency hearing could be as long as four months from now.
Yes, by all means, let’s put the crazed gunman through our oh-so-robust-and-comprehensive mental health care system and then turn him loose. Fabulous.
Good.
raindrop, was there ever any evidence or plausible enough reason to believe that he had been influenced by the gop to do what he did? i’m not a gop apologist, by any means, but i don’t recall there being a case to be made for this line of argument. he seemed to be an entirely self-driven nut, and shot giffords for his own nutty reasons. no?
@1, that’s not how it works. When he’s cured he will then be competent to stand trial.
…but the idea of American mental health institution having competent diagnostics is laughable.
It’s not that they’re incapable of telling he’s insane. He obviously is. It’s that they may someday issue a clean bill of mental health. Nobody goes into public mental health and comes out better for it. More potent mask of sanity? Maybe. Cured? lulz.
He’ll rot away the rest of his life in someplace equally horrific as an Arizona penitentiary so rest easy.
balderdash@1: if he is ever ruled competent to leave medical care, his next stop will be a courthouse to stand trial. I worry about many aspects of our country’s judicial system, but there is no chance in hell that you shoot a member of congress in the head and are walking the streets 5, 15 or even 45 years later on an insanity bid.
I have a question for you legal types. How is it legally just that, since he was probably totally certifiable when he committed this heinous act, they fix him and then make him pay for what he did as if he wasn’t a crazy?
@8 They fix him and then make him stand trial, where he is perfectly welcome to make a not guilty plea by reason of insanity.
@9 Right. Duh. Thanks.
@8, what @9 said. The purpose of the proceeding was to determine only whether Loughner is competent to stand trial. In the state of Washington, this means that he is able to understand the charges that have been brought against him and is mentally capable of participating in his own defense. Here, if a defendant is found not competent, s/he is usually transferred to Western where s/he is treated for some period of time (~30-90 days), then re-evaluated. If the defendant is again found to be not competent, the process is repeated. Theoretically, this could go on indefinitely.
In KC, it is in no way typical, but not extraordinarily unusual that a defendant is found not competent to stand trial. However, successful NGRI defenses are very rare.
I don’t believe the federal government is going to let this guy out, ever, for whatever reason. They will hold him as criminally insane permanently if he never stands trial for murder. Anyway you cut it, his life is over.
but was he insane when he bought the gun?
@7, isn’t John Hinckley up for release?
@ 14 – he’s still being held in a psychiatric hospital.
didn’t you read that the loughner-giffords shooting onslaught was staged? but 9-11 went down just as the government says it did. ok?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na…
Given the pathetic state of Arizona mental health services these days, it’ll be a very long time before he’s deemed competent for trial. Perhaps by then AZ might have 2 new senators – Sarah Palin and Joe Arpaio – and can fully complete the descent into hell.
Correction to @11: In KC, a defendant found not competent is sent out for 90 days of treatment, called “restoration”. If they are still determined to be not competent, they go down for another 90. After that, the prosecutor has discretion under the statute to send them for one more stay of 180 days. At that point if they are not competent, the charges are dismissed, and the prosecutor would move to have them civilly committed.