Jared Lee Loughner is not competent to stand trial on charges of trying to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
The judge said his ruling is based on the results of court-ordered medical evaluations of Loughner at a federal hospital in Springfield, Missouri. Two medical professionals did separate evaluations of Loughner.
The U.S. attorney general will take custody of Loughner for a period not to exceed four months, during which he will be taken to a hospital for further evaluation to determine if he will become competent to stand trial.
Loughner, 22, of Tucson, Arizona, is charged with killing six people and wounding 13 more, including Giffords, D-Arizona, who was holding a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson at the time of the January 8 shooting.
During Wednesday's hearing in Tucson to determine Loughner's competency, marshals removed Loughner from the courtroom after an outburst in which one reporter heard him say, "Thank you for the freak show. She died right in front of me," and "You're changing ..."
After the recess, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns asked Loughner if he wanted to watch the remainder of the proceedings on a television monitor, Loughner said yes, and he was removed from courtroom.
Those killed in January's shooting were a 9-year-old girl, Christina Taylor Green; John Roll, a 63-year-old U.S. District Court judge in Arizona; Gabriel "Gabe" Zimmerman, 30, Giffords' director of community outreach; retired librarian Phyllis Scheck, 79; retired construction worker Dorwin Stoddard, 76; and retiree Dorothy "Dot" Morris, 76.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Giffords, who was shot through the head and brain, is recovering from surgery that implanted a synthetic bone and a shunt in her skull, her doctors said last week. She was in attendance last week when the Space Shuttle Endeavour took off from Florida with her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, in command.
FULL STORY
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
This is absolutely hilarious. Let the tax payers pay to treat this lunatic until he is "well" and competent to stand trial, then engage in a long, drawn out trial, with possible appeals. And then, once he's convicted, execute him. Let's save everyone the trouble. Take him out of the prison hospital, put him into the general inmate population and let nature take its course. The guy is a nut and nuts are meant to be eaten.
So you like eating nuts eh? I want to get my nose fixed because it's slightly crooked from when a guy cheap shotted me and broke it. It looks too much like Jared's. I wonder if Jared broke his nose to resemble mine? I do have tormentors that copy me. If anyone likes eating nuts please let me know.
-Thedickwhisperer-
everyone talks about the congress woman – he killed a child
END HIM
How can you even punish a guy like that? Will the death penalty be enough? I think handing him over to one of North Korea's death camps will do more justice.
So? Execute him anyway.
Wow he sure looks like he knew what he was doing to me>>
Go figure...but he was apparently competent to buy a gun at Walmart....
and a driver's license
By the look of his nose/eyes the cops who arrested him beat the s*** out of him
I get such a kick out of how we get to use the plea "not guilty"...c'mon everyone saw him shooting people...he was competent enough to plot a mass murder rampage
WHAT!!!!! U got to be kidding!!! If he can execute the shooting spree !! then he answer for his actions
100% agree. This took a lot of planning and calculation. Obviously anyone who kills someone is not "normal" according to how we process normality. However, there are many people with mental disorders – as much as 15% of the population yet not too many of them kill people, particularly people who did nothing to put themselves in harm's way. What message does this send?
Is it just me or does this nut look a lot like Andrei Chikatilo?
No, I don't think so. He looks like a young Uncle Fester.
Isn't it amazing how the only people who deserve to get the death penalty never get it?
I'm so sad, this guy ducked my mother. He then took me from behind.
This was a planned event, not just something that he randomly did.
Pretty high K/D ratio!
Leave him with me for a few minutes; I'll let him feel what it is like to be on the opposite end of a handgun.
GOOD NIGHT INCOMPETENT!!!
Keep dreaming. Don't you have a video game to play....or a movie to watch?