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Subscribe to RSSJared Loughner, forever associated with one of the worst U.S. shootings and the near-fatal wounding of Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, plans a plea deal that will keep him in prison for life. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
The man accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in Tucson last year wants to plead guilty, according to sources familiar with the case.
The federal judge handling the case had scheduled a status hearing in Tucson for this Tuesday to get an update from prison doctors treating Jared Loughner, who's been undergoing mental health treatment in a Bureau of Prisons hospital since shortly after the shooting.
Loughner now wants to plead guilty at that hearing, and the doctors treating him are prepared to testify that he's mentally competent to offer the plea, these sources say.
Acceptance of a plea from Loughner will not be automatic. Under federal court rules, the judge must be satisfied that a guilty plea is "knowing and voluntary." That will require the judge to ask Loughner a series of questions in open court to make certain that he has the capacity to understand what a guilty plea means, including the fact that he gives up all his appeal rights.
A federal official says any agreement to accept the plea would require Loughner to serve a sentence of life in prison. If Loughner were to stand trial, he could face the death penalty if convicted. If the judge accepts the guilty plea, then the sentence would be determined later, after another hearing.
The shooting, outside a supermarket in Tucson, severely wounded Giffords, killed six people, and wounded 12 others.
Legal sources say the terms of any plea agreement are still being worked out, and it's not clear whether he would plead guilty to all the charges in the federal indictment or only some of them.
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The attack in Tucson came as Giffords was sponsoring an event to meet constituents outside a store. Among the victims who were slain were federal Judge John Roll; 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, who was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and Gabe Zimmerman, a Giffords staffer.
Giffords spent more than a year in Houston undergoing intensive physical and speech therapy in a recovery that doctors and family have called miraculous. But she was unable to fully return to Congress and resigned in January this year.
Ron Barber, a Giffords staffer who survived two gunshot wounds in the Tucson attack, won her seat in a special election in June.
Pete Williams is NBC News' chief justice correspondent.
A sources says that Jared Loughner, the man accused of killing six people and wounding Gabrielle Giffords in 2011, is set to plead guilty in a Tucson court on Tuesday. NBC's Diana Alvear reports.
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so if this guy was a mental case and had been seen by Dr's in the past before killings why wasn't he in an institute for the mentally ill, or was he put in someones care , and if none of this was done maybe the Dr. that seen him in the past and knew he was crazy should be on trial
To my opinion, he looks and acts like the new generation of people we have today in society. He is normal. Its just the way his parents raised him.
so to plead guilty he gets out of the death pentalty? WTH how many people did he kill? and he should not die? I say light him up and be done with it. all that is going to happen is he will get 3 hot meals a day, a warm bed, and all the TV he wants, that is some justice!
If I were ever to do something like that, I would plead guilty too, and waive having an attorney, and waive rights to s peedy trial, waive the death penalty, and be done with it. A needle in the arm is much better than sitting around for 20, 30, or 40 years. Similar to "suicide by cop".
We're all crazy. It's just a matter of degree. The problem I see when someone like this nut is allowed to plead guilty to save himself is that it reinforces for me that he's no more or less crazy than the rest of us. True insanity wouldn't allow him to realize self-interest by pleading guilty. The guy/woman who is really insane would stand up and insist that they were guilty of nothing without regard to their own self-interest. He like all the others like him want notoriety. He wants to be famous. The best thing we can do if we won't do the best thing, execute him so that he never does this again and so that we don't spend millions keeping him well fed and healthy (unlike a lot of Americans these days), is to lock him up, give him a number and never, ever refer to him by name again. That's the second best punishment and if he really isn't insane now, that disregard will make him so.
You really need to spend some time reading up on mental illness.I liken your comments to Hitler,who wanted a perfect human species.
Once again another example of Ronald Reagan's Patients Rights Law. The Giffords are satisfied with this guys plea.Had this of been their son they would be demanding better mental health care in this country but the former astronaut is too busy banking his taxpayer pension into his bank account.There's enough money for a space program but the mentally insane be darned.
This man killed my friends, Mother, and Grandmother....There's no insanity when you do so much planning..I still believe in an eye for and eye. If it were up to me I think he should be hunted down like a rabid animal and SHOT TO DEATH. Why waste our taxpayers $$ keeping him alive for life or using all our $$$ to execute him..????He certainly didn't care about WHAT he took from eveyone...
This crazy killed my friends Mother and my friend grandmother. Even though I say he's a crazy doesn't mean he's insane. He planned this killing too well and if it were up to me he would be hunted down like a rabid animal. Why should we use our tax $$ to give him a life in prison OR spend our tax $$$ to execute him???? Our country is TOO easy on these people. Theres NO doubt he did it.... So he needs to be hunted down and taken out!!!!
@Monique I understand that he may have been mentally ill and that he may have been a victim of his own sadistic mind, but the fact is that he still killed and injured many people.
@monique the guy is a victim to his own mentally sick mind, but it doesn't make up the fact he killed and injured people.