Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attend Thursday's sentencing of the Arizona man who pleaded guilty to shooting her in the head, a source close to Giffords said.
Prosecutors have said Jared Loughner will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the January 2011 shooting, which killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Giffords, at a meet-and-greet event in Tucson.
The source said Giffords' husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, also will attend the sentencing, and that Kelly will speak at the proceeding.
As part of a plea deal with the government, Loughner pleaded guilty in August to 19 charges in exchange for the sentence to avoid facing the death penalty.
Giffords stepped down from her position in Congress last January to focus on her recovery and has since regained the ability to speak and walk, though her right side remains weak.
He'll walk.
He'll walk into prison cell, being he pleaded guilty, Jeff Frank.
> A civilization that bargins a plea deal on an open & shut case, with a mass murdering anarchist assasin, needs to go the way of the Dodo bird!
> Anethema Maranatha ...
>
The plea is actually better I think. His "deal" is life in prison. Most likely we don't sentence mentally ill people to death, so most likely its the same sentence, minus a traumatic trial.
Total moron.