As anyone who’s read Jared Lee Loughner’s internet rantings (since removed) or gazed at his visage will attest, the Arizona spree killer is as crazy as a loon. And yet Uncle Sam is determined to get the federal court to rule Loughner competent to stand trial. They’ve been pumping JLL with anti-psychotic drugs (against his lawyer’s objections), isolating him from the general prison population and refusing to allow the defense to videotape his interrogations “therapy.” Even now, after all that, despite a shrink’s determination that Loughner’s still batshit crazy, the killer is being railroaded towards a show trial. Aided and abetted by U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns. Check this latest ruling . . .

On Monday, January 30, 2012, the Court received a competency report from Dr. Christina Pietz, the defendant’s chief psychologist. In Dr. Pietz’s opinion, the defendant remains incompetent to stand trial, in particular because he lacks an adequate understanding of the nature and consequences of the charges against him. Dr. Pietz does, however, believe that the defendant has made measurable progress toward competency, and that his mental state will continue to improve.

I’d sure like to see the original psychiatrist’s report. The Judge’s carefully couched wording—Loughner “continue(s) to improve”—says nothing about Loughner’s ultimate ability to attain mental competency. Which would never happen without his mandatory drug regimen and “therapy” sessions with the prison doc.

The feds have had four months to de-crazy-i-fy Loughner. The judge has just given them another four. It’s been over a year since the shooting.

This is nuts. Loughner is nuts. Let him plead out, lock him up, throw away the key and be done with it. The Powers That Be should focus their attention on the failure of his parents, his friends, his school, the ATF and the sheriff’s department to intervene before Loughner went postal. Period.

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32 COMMENTS

  1. He should certainly be tried. Psychiatric intervention into criminal law sets the stage for abuse, and is very questionable in any case. The matter to be decided is whether he shot the people, and whether he was justified in shooting them. If the answer is yes and no in that order, he should face punishment.

    And I don’t want to hear that “we don’t punish sick people.” Sick people are punished all the time. It is just that we’ve created a special category of “sickness” called mental illness, and decided either not to punish these folks, or punish them differently if they commit crimes. Why should a lunatic get a “free ride” in a hospital when a sane person gets the chair? Besides, there are a lot of lunatics, and few go about shooting others indiscriminately. What a farce.

    • The Supremes have ruled already that nutty people can be drugged up to make them “sane” to be executed. This is no different. What is more of an issue is whether or not JLL is capable of getting a fair trial given all of the publicity. He is going to get the needle no doubt, but I kinda like to believe that the Bill of Rights should mean we as a nation of laws do enough to preserve that argument.

  2. Of course! Obama, Holder, et al all know that any gun-owner has to be crazy as a loon, so Loughner is just an average, every-day gun-owner who must be made an example of to prove that they need to ban guns for our own good!

    Or something like that.

    Naw, cynical? Me?

  3. Eric Holder and the Washington Gang need to be on trial. They’re not crazy though their values and ethics stink.

  4. Robert: Even a plea bargain is still a trial. If he’s not competent to stand trail, then he’s not competent to plea bargain, either, and if he were to plea bargain, he’d most likely be able to have that plea bargain overturned if he later changes his mind.

  5. I don’t understand the hand-wringing and garment-rending over this miserable excuse for a human being. I’d rather reserve my righteous indignation for lamenting the loss of people he killed, including a little nine year old girl. Somehow, she and the other victims save one have already been forgotten.

    The little girl’s name was Christina Taylor. She was born on 9/11 and died at the hands of this smirking bastard. Nothing that happens to Loughner now can be bad enough.

    Strange country. The murderers get the sympathy and their victims just get buried.

    • I do no know enough about Jared Lee Loughner to have an opinion about how morally culpable he is.

      That said it is clear to me that there are human beings out there whose ability to sort right from wrong is compromised. I believe these folks need to be treated differently than a criminal who can make those distinctions and chose to do evil.

      If we can, I think a society willing to make that distinction between the wicked and the mad is a better society than one that does not.

    • The man is sick in the head. It’s not his fault, any more than it’s a dog’s fault he got rabies. There are no winners in this situation, and it’s entirely possible to have sympathy for everyone. I have no problem executing him – we do shoot rabid animals, after all – but this is not a matter of criminal justice in the normal sense. We’re not going to teach him a lesson in his final hours. He’s too sick to understand it. We’re not going to deter anyone else by killing him. People like him are also too sick to comprehend the example. We’re not going to bring any of his victims back. We won’t even save the taxpayers any money – trials and appeals will easily cost more than simply keeping him in a home for the criminally insane. If we do it, it’ll be all about satisfying the public. It’s a display entirely for our benefit. Something to make us feel better. Make us feel like there’s a solution, when there really isn’t one. Sometimes people are just crazy. Sometimes life just sucks. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it. Pumping him full of drugs so we can have a big flashy trial and execute him after years of appeals and re-re-recountings of the crime is just a way to live in denial of that basic fact.

      Let’s learn to accept our limitations and the imperfections of the world, put him in a small white room, and move on.

  7. Jared Loughner is so far gone mentally that executing him is akin to euthanizing a rabid dog that bit a lot of people. It is unfortunate he wasn’t killed on the scene by an armed citizen or law enforcement.

  8. The poet Ezra Pound spent World War II in Italy making pro-axis radio broadcasts. After Italy surrendered, Pound, who was bats**t crazy, was tried and convicted of treason. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at Saint Elizabeth Hospital in DC. Just because you are nuts doesn’t mean you don’t have political views or that you get a pass for your crimes. Loughner should be tried, convicted and given the death penalty for his actions. It’s not a show trial, it’s called justice.

    • Fair enough but—drugging up Loughner against his will to make him look sane (so that the state can fry him and score political points) isn’t playing fair. I know it’s legal, but ceding that much power to the government is far more dangerous than a single barking mad spree killer. IMHO.

  10. He’s patently off his box.
    When this happens with a dog or other domesticated animal, the usual outcome is the destruction of that animal with a minimum of fuss.
    I suggest the same approach to people such as JLL would save a great deal of anguish & deny several Lawyers access to a large amount of taxpayers’ money.

  11. The death penalty prevents recidivism.

    It certainly seems appropriate here, provided the DA and the jury are competent.

    Again, I have more sympathy for the victims than the suspect. I guess I’d rather my tax dollars go to a legitimate execution than 3 square meals a day for the next 60 years due to an insanity plea.

  12. Being crazy and being legally insane are two completely different things. I don’t know the standard in AZ, but most jurisdictions adhere to the M’Naghton Rule. The rule states that a person is not guilt by reason of insanity only of he or she was unable to understand the nature and consequences of his actions or to know they were wrong. The burden of proof is on the defense to prove insanity, not the prosecution. Oh, and there is no “bat shit crazy” exception to the rule.

    Laughner knew what he was doing and knew that it was legally wrong. Whether he heard voices or hated his mommy because she caught him wetting his bed is irrelevant.

    Pump the guy up with enough meds so he can assist in his own defense. That’s legally required. I don’t really give a flying f^ck if he suffered a psychotic break after he got arrested and thrown into the pit of hell where he belongs.

    It doesn’t seem that he legally insane at the time of the crime. The fact that he carefully planned his murders by buying his gun in time for the event in the supermarket parking lot, and his Facebook rants evidencing his intentions, shows that this was a carefully premeditated crime. He’s just a baby killer.

  13. i agree with accur, i also feel far more for the innocents gunned down from behind than this crazy pendejo.

  14. I hope they keep filling this lowlife scumbag full of drugs and then I hope they fry his sick ass. I’d rather see him get the firing squad but I don’t think they allow it AZ and it was be a waste of good ammo (I’d be willing to donate some of my S&W500 ammo if they did allow the firing squad).

  15. I really do not think this guy needs drugs. Quite frankly, I think people should be given a lot of latitude and freedom; but the catch is that people should be held responsible for their actions. The guy killed a lot of people and he should be held responsible and suffer the consequences. Everytime I come across a guy like Loughner, I sort of think of the criminal in Dirty Harry going about he is not responsible for his actions because he is” sick”.

    • I’m not saying that he should avoid responsibility. I just don’t like the government drugging him BEFORE they give him the needle, should that be his ultimate fate. Sets a bad precedent. Well, continues a practice that I find morally repugnant.

  16. Waste of drugs and electricity. Rope can be quite Earth friendly:

    1. Recyclable
    2. Organic (could even be made from hemp)
    3. Supports local hardware businesses
    4. No evil coal or nuclear power requirements

  17. Well if they do declare him competent then won’t that destroy the gun control nut’s rants about how an insane man was allowed to buy a gun?

  18. Heavily medicate the boy. Then over-medicate. Whoops. Now where did I put that number for the doctor?

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