whitehall
Diamond Member
A federal judge ruled the shooter is not mentally competent to stand trial.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
.Jared Lee Loughner: Loughner ruled incompetent to stand trial in Arizona shootings - latimes.com
After studying reports from two mental-health experts who examined the 22-year-old defendant, Judge Larry A. Burns stopped federal death-penalty proceedings against Loughner and sent him back to the federal medical center for prisoners in Springfield, Mo., for treatment and further evaluation.
Burns scheduled another hearing for Sept. 21 to see if Loughner's condition had improved enough for him to assist in his own defense.
The ruling also appears to put on hold any state trial against Loughner, as local authorities say they will not be able to try him until after he is either convicted or acquitted in federal court.
Chances are doctors eventually will be able to get the symptoms of his newly diagnosed schizophrenia under control, and a judge will find him competent to stand trial. "It's a fairly routine part of criminal justice," says Richard Bonnie, director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He says 60,000 to 80,000 defendants in state and federal criminal courts are evaluated for mental competence each year.
Of those, judges find 15,000 to 20,000 defendants too mentally ill or disabled to face the charges against them, Bonnie estimates. They are sent to prison psychiatric facilities for treatment intended to make them competent to stand trial. About 85% of mentally ill defendants become well enough to return to court, Bonnie says.
"It's a pretty rare scenario that someone stays incompetent and never faces their charges," says Daniel Murrie, a forensic psychologist and professor of psychiatry at University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Steps leading to a grim day in Arizona