Democratic Congresswoman Among 12 Shot in Arizona

It's pretty clear he's mentally ill.

It's up to the legal system to decide if he could determine between right and wrong.

From your comments, it seems that you assume that some of us just want vengeance and will be disappointed with out it.

Like Dick, at some level, you do have to sympathize with this kid if he was tormented by mental illness and never received help.

I think we also need to look at the drug use. It's been reported that he smoked copious amounts of marijuana. In the second article LJB posted -- the one that mentions the fall from the monkey bars -- it also mentions that he used cocaine and then graduated to hallucinogenic drugs.

That had to take a toll -- especially if he already had mental health issues.

I feel terrible for the family, but I also have to wonder why they didn't do more to get him help. In fact, I have to wonder if the father and/or mother also had their own mental health issues.

 

Of course some people want vengeance. It's human nature.

 

If Palin had a lick of either common sense or decency, she would take a step back and reflect on her ill-chosen words and actions, and ask whether she's part of the solution, or part of the problem.

Of course, she has neither, so she'll continue to cower on Facebook and Twitter, like the pathetic coward she truly is, instead of facing the legitimate questions swirling around her.

As far as the mental health issue with Loughner... that's going to be litigated to the gills here shortly. I'm prepared to let the system work, and then accept its judgment.

 

Millions and millions of people have smoked weed, dabbled in coke, done LSD. The number who've shot 20 people in one fell swoop probably can be counted on your hands. Not gonna put much stock in any presumed linkage there.

And if the mentally ill angle plays out, this guy should never see the light of day beyond an institution's walls.

 

Mental illness alone does not make a person not guilty by reason in insanity (NGRI). You can't convict him if he's NGRI. Most states, including Arizona from what I've seen from the legal buffs on TV, require that for the NGRI defense to be used that the defendant must "not know the nature and quality of his act" or "not know what he was doing was wrong." That is a very high bar for the insanity defense to be operable. A diagnosis of mental illness alone does not rise to the level of NGRI being a valid defense.

States were getting more liberal about the use of NGRI defense before the Reagan assassination attempt, but began to roll back to the standard I've just laid out after that time. Even by the more lax rule that some states use, that requires the defendant "lacks the substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct, or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law" the level of premeditation here would make it a tough defense.

There is a separate issue regarding the death penalty, however, that the Supreme Court has said it is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on a mentally retarded person. Still, if he had the intelligence level of an adult, which it will probably be shown he did from everything I've seen, he can be sentenced to death even if he is diagnosed with mental illness. Mental illness, however, may be used as a mitigating factor in sentencing by the defense.

 

At this point, what the heck does Sarah Palin have to do with this story?

 

"When you're hot, you're hot!"

I don't think she's had any significance to any legitimate news story since November 2008; nothing beyond celeb news, that is.

 

The shooter, Giffords, Roll and Christina Green had all crossed paths before. At a local YMCA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011105025.html

 

I wish the kid had smoked more herb. He might be in his dungeon eating cereal out of the box and watching Cake Boss instead of facing five federal charges.

 

I agree with you on that.

 

There's a difference between "dabbling" in drugs and abusing them.

Probably everyone here knows someone in high school who abused drugs to the point where they became what we called a "burnout".

It sounds like this kid used a lot of drugs. Read the link LBJ posted. His friend says he spent vast amounts of money on drugs.

And read the studies. If you already have symptoms of paranoia and schizophrenia, drugs will only compound the issues.

I know a lot of people would like to pretend drugs are harmless because they tried them or used them when they were kids, but they are dangerous. In certain people -- and in certain amounts -- they are deadly.

This isn't a kid who lit a joint once in a while and listened to Jimmy Cliff or Jerry Garcia.

 

You're late to the party. Your views were discredited two days ago.