Possible plea deal in Giffords shooting case

A court artist's rendering of Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner. / CBS News

(AP) PHOENIX - A possible plea deal in the deadly Tucson shootings that wounded then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords would send Jared Lee Loughner to prison for the rest of his life, according to a person familiar with the case.

A court-appointed psychiatrist will testify Tuesday that Loughner is competent to enter a plea in the shooting rampage that killed six people and injured 13, including Giffords, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A status conference in the federal case had already been scheduled for Tuesday in Tucson.

The person, speaking Saturday about upcoming events in the case, said the plan is for Loughner to enter a guilty plea in the murders and attempted murders. The plan is contingent on the judge in the case allowing Loughner to enter the plea.

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier Saturday that Loughner was set to change his plea.

Bill Solomon, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said he could not comment on Loughner's case and the possibility of a guilty plea.

The Pima County attorney's office, which has said it could also pursue state prosecution of Loughner, declined to comment, said spokeswoman Isabel Burruel Smutzer.

Loughner had pleaded not guilty to 49 federal charges stemming from the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting outside a Tucson supermarket where Giffords was holding a meet-and-greet with constituents.

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Authorities said he shot Giffords, opened fire on the crowd and was subdued by bystanders. Giffords was shot in the head and subsequently left Congress to devote her time to rehabilitation.

Giffords and her husband were traveling in Europe, and spokeswoman Hayley Zachary said Saturday she had no information on developments in Loughner's case.

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, a Democrat who was elected in June to replace Giffords in Congress after she resigned, also was wounded in the shooting. A spokesman for Barber did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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[credibility2]

Convicted criminals, regardless of the crime committed, should never be given a plea deal. That merely diminishes what was done to the victims by the criminal. That isn't punishment. Do away with plea deals, as well as appeals and start using on a regular basis the death penalty. Stop accommodating, understanding and pandering to criminals. Stop making criminals more important than their victims.

[jwilsonte5]

All this does is make murders more likely to kill!! The problem is we have anti death sentence proscutors in proscutors office with only purpose to spare scum like this , this is going to cause people to take law into there own hands and our loss of freedom. this sick this pc. of sh-it murdered little kids!! because life didnt go his way now we take care of his health ,room board , feed him while we barely get by LOL

[mrjustice1]

TIME TO WRITE/LEGISLATE NEW AND SENSIBLE LAWS

How much more than blatant, outright, and clearly visible acts of murder, does it take to get our laws to convict promptly, in order to avoid the waste-of-time legal and systemic burden costs, by sensibly removing the rights of a perpetrator by "Auto-Waiver" ?

[Filmguy870]

You gotta be kidding me! Put him out of OUR misery! It shouldn't cost much....

[BWB2020]

Being in custody where he has no chance of harming other innocent people, IS being out of your misery, unless of course you are just like him, ready to see, before due process, someone else die because of your opinion.

As far as cost, if your few tax pennies are worth more than a life, why not then do yourself in, so the money you might have earned can instead be earned by someone "more deserving"?

[dustin93sc]

Jared Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic and was brain-washed by a domestic terror cell. He needs extensive psychiatric treatment.

[14FREEK]

Ibet Gabby and her husband would not agree. They might agree publically but I bet anything behind closed doors they want this scourge eliminated as much as anybody.

I think the only deal he should get is that if he confesses and takes the death penalty he waives ALL RIGHTS TO ANY APPEALS. hopefully he will receive his just punishment before the year ends.

[jackp32]

This plea to Federal charges will not have any bearing on State charges. I'm betting that AZ will pursue murder charges and seek the death sentence against this heinous killer. Since Oh!Bama came to power, the number of cases where the Federal death penalty has been sought has declined. Also, no one on Federal death row has been executed since Oh!Bama came to power even though some have exhausted all of their appeals. The current administration is anti death penalty as most leftists are.

[mrjustice1]

Our enemy-resident President is too busy accommodating and supporting America's adversaries, enemies, illegal aliens, extreme Left-wing Global Movements, and all sorts of overseas interests to take serious charge of our America's needs.

[BWB2020]

@mrjustice1

Not our enemy, but your enemy.

Speak for yourself, dude.

[mrjustice1]

SHOULD WE REALLY BEAR THE COST FOR LOUGHNER'S MURDEROUS RAMPAGE?

Our laws and our legal Justice System are incessantly played with and abused.

The pendulum of Law and Justice as well as attitudes toward the same, must swing back

from;
"the liberal and revenue-generating game it has become,

to;
a correct and logical state of providing rights and
protection for the decent people, while denying rights
and protection for the perpetrators."

It is regrettable to report that our System of Justice and Law Enforcement, has evolved or has deliberately been steered into one, by unproductive lawyers, judges and others, in whose personal interest such purposes and revenues lies.

Our Justice System is NOT supposed to exist to serve the personal and financial purposes of an elitist class of lawyers and Lawmakers. By remaining in its current state, we continue to experience immeasurable damage to community, to society, to ways we conduct business, etc.

Tragically, the same also contributes to a weaker, disharmonious nation.

[BWB2020]

yo Slick, until a jury says the word "guilty", everyone is guaranteed rights and protection, even baggers like Loughner. No one is a "perpetrator" until a jury says so, not you, even if you were an eyewitness to the act.

This is done precisely to protect the rights of all people, until it is officially determined beyond reasonable doubt that they have abrogated their legal responsibilities that guarantee their rights.

National disharmony has existed ever since the country became. Just ask the Native Americans, the Irish, the Italians, and most exemplary, the victims of the African Diaspora.

[jackp32]

BWB2020: You forgot to include the group that I belong to in your last paragraph--------Polish-Americans.

[marzxyz]

At some level, this fellow is without question mentally ill. It is indeed a shame that someone in his family, his social circle, his school, etc. did not intervene to get him the help that he needed before he ruined his life and, more importantly, the lives of so many others. I'll leave the issue of whether or not he should be put to death versus put behind bars for the rest of his life to the debating society.

[baileycccc]

Why waste good American money on evil? If you want to deter shootings like this, the death penalty is the answer.

[Berkeley-SkirtLifter]

Death penalty is way too expensive. In CA, death row inmates die of old age and we spend millions of $ on multiple appeals.

Death penalty is a scam for lawyers to get rich.