Jared Loughner Ruled Incompetent

Thank you!

 

Loughner, the man arrested for a Jan 8 shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., has been ruled incompetent to stand trial. Yes, A federal judge agreed with two doctors that suspected Tucson shooter Jared Loughner is not competent to stand trial, and he will be hospitalized in a facility in Springfield, Mo., to receive treatment.United States Marshals dragged Loughner out of the courtroom Wed following a mad outburst. I found this here: Loughner deemed incompetent to stand trial, newstype.com. He really needs some treatment, he's obviously out of his mind.

 

Or, maybe smart enough to know how to set up an insanity defense.


Send him to prison where hopefully he'll get Dahmered in short order. The "treatment" he needs is a steel shank in his neck.

 

Another gun nut.

 

Is the question whether he is competent NOW? Or competent at the time of the shooting? Can be a big difference.

In the end, I'm not losing too much sleep over it. He'll be in a mental facility or prison for the rest of his life.

 

The question at the moment is if he's competent enough now to assist in his own defense (which is a constitutionally guaranteed right). Given the ruling, he will remain hospitalized until he reaches a point where he is ruled competent enough to stand trial.

If it ever gets to trial, the question will be how mentally unstable was he at the time of the shooting and did that instability affect his ability to tell right from wrong. The truly mentally ill occasionally do heinous thing that they are absolutely convinced are "right" because of auditory or visual hallucinations or because they base their decision on the strange, demented logic of something like paranoid schizophrenia.

There's a book that I can't remember the title of, but it's about an LA Times columnist and his relationship with a schizophrenic homeless man who he discovered had attended Julliard. The book details some of the journals and conversations this man had, and if you ever want insight into how a schizophrenic's world is an entirely different place than the rest of ours, it's fascinating.

 

Steve Lopez
pretty good movie also, The Soloist

 

All that's true, but realistically I have to wonder . . .

Exactly how would he ever take part in defending himself? He won't take the stand (almost nobody in these cases ever does). What useful information could he possibly give his lawyers? What useful information did Manson, Adkins, et al, give their lawyers? Hell, in the middle of the Manson trial, the girls were ready to basically admit to everything and absolve Charlie. Not only did the four not "participate" in their defense, they pretty much IMPEDED it . . . so much so that the defense basically rested without making an argument (to prevent the girls from confessing).

 

Since it's a constitutionally protected right it doesn't matter how much he can help his defense.

 

What I always thought was brilliant by the Manson prosecutor (Bugliosi) was how he was out to prove Manson was guilty because the girls were all just puppets under his control. Then the girls spent the entire trial making this point for him until Manson finally figured out their behavior was doing him more harm than good.