Feds to Oppose Moving Tucson Shooting Trial

The Justice Department will oppose any effort to move the trial of alleged Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner out of Arizona, a senior Department of Justice official told CBS News.

"The Department plans to bring the case in Arizona, and will oppose any change of venue motions," said Tracy Schmaler, a deputy director of public affairs at the DOJ.

Complete Coverage: Tragedy in Tucson

The Washington Post had reported that federal authorities are planning on moving the trial to San Diego, Calif., because of the "extensive pretrial publicity in Arizona" The paper based its report on unnamed federal law enforcement sources.

One of the victims killed in the Jan. 8, 2011, massacre is John McCarthy Roll, who was Arizona's chief federal judge. All federal judges in Arizona have recused themselves from the case.

Judge Larry Burns, a San Diego-based federal judge was appointed to the case last week.

"60 Minutes" aired a good-bye message Sunday left by shooting suspect Jared Loughner that was left on a friend's cell phone.

"Hey. Hey it's Jared. I just want to tell you 'good times.' Peace out. Later," he said in the message.

A video Loughner made at Pima Community College shows another glimpse into his troubled mind, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

"This is my genocide school where I'm gonna be homeless because of this school," Loughner said in the video.

Many are still asking why this all happened, which Loughner's former friends have said is what he wanted.

"He knew that his friends were going to come out and speak about him and people were going to try to understand him," said Tyler Conway, a former friend of Loughner's.

Loughner is in federal custody in Phoenix. Sources tell CBS News he is in segregation spending 23 hours a day alone.

[run2jazz2]

I think they can find 12 jurors in Arizona who can be imparial enough to listen to the case to pass judgement on the merits of the law? I guess the question that

I have is if I was his lawyers I would be trying to plea for insanity and life in prison. With all the evidence it would be hard to find innocents unless the jury were all NRA members? They would probably argue insanity and that the trigger got stuck!

[gruven13777]

This is good news. If it was moved to CA, he would more than likely walk and be out on the streets again in no time.

[winchester70]

Move the trial to Outer Mongolia or Tibet. No pre-trial publicity there. Otherwise Iran. They'd string him up in days.

[betterusa]

Loughners attorney wants to keep raising the price tag to the US taxpayers. Why are we paying for a well-known, high-priced San Diego attorney when a Tucson Public Defender would have been good enough? This scum PLANNED this attack, purchased the weapon, contacted former friends the night before to say good-bye and now they want to give him the insane label and try to convince a (liberal) California jury he did not know what he was doing-guess how many appeals we will be paying for until this is done? What a joke; execute this SOB, the sooner the better, and give some peace of mind to the victims and their families and some reasonable expense to the taxpayer.

[34sender]

You sure don't represent a better USA.

WE have a little thing called the Constitution insuring the rule of law and a presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Every American is entitled to a competent defense, per said Constitution.

Maybe you want a better "country of my own opinion" ... but bucko, that a'int the USA!

The defense attorney is not high priced. She was appointed, not hired. She is well known for defending high profile defendants. These individuals have been convicted in fair trials, conducted to the letter of the law and not open for appeal.

Think before you use your own biased, politically motivated line of bull on every doggone issue.

[Birdman04]

She has also lost every single high profile case she has defended.

[pragmatist1]

The trial should occur in AZ for Loughner. He is in fact the shooter and not the "alleged" shooter. This labeling is so PC.

[jumkey]

You're an idiot, you know that?

You're just going to let the government decide he is the shooter? Did you see it happen? No, you just going to take the word of the government. So should we decide ALL cases are obvious, or just the ones YOU think are so? And how do we decide that?

Again, you're an idiot.

[34sender]

Damn that rule of law, it's so PC.

In this case politically correct means "based on the US Constitution's protections for all Americans, even the worst of us".