Jared
Lee Loughner was sentenced to 140 years imprisonment for shooting six people
dead in Tuscon, Arizona on January 8, 2011. So obvious that he did not want to
be put to death, it was a good idea that the death penalty can be used for plea
bargaining, to make trials faster. I will post information about him from
Wikipedia.
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Born
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September 10, 1988
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Residence
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Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
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Nationality
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American
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Education
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Mountain View High School
(dropped out)
Pima Community College (withdrew) |
Known for
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2011 Tucson shooting
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Criminal charge
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49, including 2
first-degree murder of federal employees (federal), 4 first-degree murder
(state), attempted murder of a member of Congress (federal), 2 attempted
murder of federal employees (federal), 10 attempted first-degree murder
(state)
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Criminal status
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Pled guilty on August 7,
2012 to all charges, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
parole
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Jared Lee Loughner (born September 10, 1988) is an American who pleaded
guilty to 19 charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with the
shooting near Tucson, Arizona, on January 8, 2011, in which he shot and
severely injured U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, his target, and killed
six people, including Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, as well as a
9-year-old bystander Christina-Taylor Green. Loughner shot and injured 12 other
people, and one man was injured while subduing him.
Acquaintances
said that Loughner's personality had changed markedly in the years prior to the
shooting, a period when he was also abusing alcohol and drugs. He had been
suspended from Pima Community College in September 2010 because of his bizarre
behavior and disruptions in classes and the library. After his arrest, two medical
evaluations diagnosed him as paranoid schizophrenic and incompetent to stand
trial. He was medicated while in jail as part of his treatment. He was again
judged incompetent in May 2012. In August 2012, he was judged competent to
stand trial, and at the hearing, he pleaded guilty to 19 counts. In November
2012, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Personal background
Loughner
is the only child of Randy and Amy Loughner. They were described by a neighbor
as a very private family. Amy Loughner worked for the City Parks Department.
Journalists did not determine if Randy Loughner worked outside the house. While
Loughner had friends in high school, neighbors noted that in the years
following, he kept more to himself and did not respond to others.
Behavior change
Loughner
attended Mountain View High School, and dropped out in 2006. Around this time,
when he was about eighteen years old, those who knew him noted a change in his
personality. Kelsey Hawkes, who dated Loughner for several months in high
school, later said she could not believe it was him after hearing of his
arrest. "I've always known him as the sweet, caring Jared", said
Hawkes, 21, then a student at the University of Arizona.
At
some point, Loughner was fired from his job at a Quiznos restaurant, with his
manager saying he had undergone a personality transformation. After this,
Loughner briefly volunteered at a local animal shelter, walking dogs, but he
was asked not to return. The shelter manager later said, "He was walking
dogs in an area we didn't want dogs walked...he didn't understand or comprehend
what the supervisor was trying to tell him. He was just resistant to that
information."
Tong
Shan, a former friend and classmate of Loughner's, recalled observing significant
changes in his attitude and demeanor a year prior to the shooting. Shan, who
became friends with Loughner on the day of their high school graduation, said
that they would often spend time together after class in college but lost touch
after the semester ended. When they met again in mid-2010, Shan recalled that
Loughner appeared, "Radically different. [...] From the way he was talking
to me [online]... you can see. It was just questions and questions and random,
weird questions that didn't go together," she said. "He wanted to
know everything...he would just trip out." Recounting her early
experiences with Loughner in light of the shooting, Shan said Loughner was
"a good person that just somehow changed so much. I don't know what the
hell happened to him."
Shan
stated that her last encounter with Loughner was in October 2010, after he was
suspended and dropped out of college and just before he purchased the
semi-automatic handgun used in the massacre. She said that while Loughner was
"anti-government," he never appeared violent, nor did he mention his
plans to buy a gun.
According
to court records, Loughner had two previous offenses: in October 2007, he was
cited in Pima County for possession of drug paraphernalia and on October 13,
2008, he was charged after defacing a street sign in Marana, near Tucson (which
was dismissed following the completion of a diversion program in March 2009).
Substance use
Zach
Osler, a high school classmate of Loughner's, and his closest friend, indicated
that Loughner's life began to unravel after his high school girlfriend broke up
with him. He began to abuse alcohol and other drugs, specifically Salvia
divinorum (a natural hallucinogen illegal in some states). Another longtime
friend, Kylie Smith, added that Loughner had used cannabis (marijuana),
psychedelic mushrooms, and LSD around that same time. After struggling with
drugs for more than two years, Loughner quit using marijuana (as well as
alcohol and tobacco) in late 2008 and has not used it since, according to one
of his longtime friends. The U.S. Army confirmed that Loughner had been
rejected as "unqualified" for service in 2008. According to military
sources, Loughner admitted to marijuana use on numerous occasions during the
application process.
Former
classmate Caitie Parker remembered Loughner as a "pot head". Loughner
has a history of drug use, having been arrested in September 2007 for
possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. "I haven't seen him in
person since '07," Parker recalled in early 2011. "I'm looking back
at this [as] a 14–19 year old...who knows if any of us knew what for sure we
were yet."
In
the months leading up to the shooting, Loughner's parents became increasingly
alarmed at their son's behavior at one point resorting to disabling his car
every night in order to keep him home. At one point his father confiscated his
son's shotgun and both urged him to get help.
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Loughner withdrew from Pima Community College
after he was asked to obtain a mental health clearance.
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Suspension from college
From
February to September 2010, while a student at Pima Community College, Loughner
had five contacts with college police for classroom and library disruptions.
Some of his teachers complained to the administration about his disruptions and
bizarre behavior, as they thought it a sign of mental illness and feared what
he might do. On September 29, 2010, college police also discovered a YouTube
video shot by Loughner, in which his spoken commentary stated that the college
was illegal according to the United States Constitution. He described his
school as "one of the biggest scams in America".
The
college decided to suspend Loughner and sent a letter to his parents, to
consult with them and him together. The college told Loughner that if he wanted
to return, he needed to resolve his code of conduct violations and obtain a
mental health clearance (indicating, in the opinion of a mental health
professional, that his presence did not constitute a danger to himself or
others). On October 4, Loughner and his parents met with campus administrators
and Loughner indicated he would withdraw from the college. During Loughner's
time at Pima, a classmate said she worried that he might commit a school
shooting. One of his teachers has claimed a similar suspicion after the Tucson
shooting. He never submitted to a mental health evaluation and did not return
to the college.
Several
college classmates recalled an incident in which Loughner, during a class
discussion, had mocked and laughed at a young woman who was describing her
abortion. One classmate described Loughner's reaction as "wildly
inappropriate". "(Loughner) started making comments about terrorism
and laughing about killing the baby," former classmate Don Coorough
recalled to ABC News. Yet another classmate, Lydian Ali, recalled that "a
girl had written a poem about an abortion. It was very emotional and she was
teary eyed and he said something about strapping a bomb to the fetus and making
a baby bomb out of it."
Expressed
views
Views
on politics
Records
show that Loughner was registered as an Independent and voted in 2006 and 2008,
but not in 2010. A YouTube channel under an account called
"Classitup10" was linked to Loughner. (There have been numerous
copies of 'impostor accounts' such as 'JaredLoughner' and 'Classitup1O'.)
Loughner's
high school friend Zach Osler said, "He did not watch TV; he disliked the
news; he didn't listen to political radio; he didn't take sides; he wasn't on
the Left; he wasn't on the Right." A former classmate, Caitie Parker, who
attended high school and college with Loughner, described his political views
prior to 2007, prior to his personality transformation, as "left wing,
quite liberal," "radical."
In
the aftermath of the shooting, the Anti-Defamation League reviewed messages by
Loughner, and concluded that there was a "disjointed theme that runs
through Loughner's writings", which was a "distrust for and dislike
of the government." It "manifested itself in various ways" – for
instance, in the belief that the government used the control of language and
grammar to brainwash people, the notion that the government was creating "infinite
currency" without the backing of gold and silver, or the assertion that
NASA was faking spaceflights.
Dislike
for Gabrielle Giffords
According
to a former friend, Bryce Tierney, Loughner had expressed a longstanding
dislike for Gabrielle Giffords.
Tierney recalled that Loughner had often said that women should not hold
positions of power. He repeatedly derided Giffords as a "fake". This
belief intensified after he attended her August 25, 2007 event when she did
not, in his view, sufficiently answer his question: "What is government if
words have no meaning?" Loughner kept Giffords' form letter, which thanked
him for attending the 2007 event, in the same box as an envelope which was
scrawled with phrases like "die bitch" and "assassination plans
have been made". Zane Gutierrez, a friend, later told the New York
Times that Loughner's anger would also "well up at the sight of
President George W. Bush, or in discussing what he considered to be the
nefarious designs of government."
Conspiracy
theories
His
friend Zach Osler noted that conspiracy theories had a profound effect on
Loughner, particularly the online film Zeitgeist: The Movie, with which friends
claimed Loughner held an obsession. He was a member of the message board Above
Top Secret, which discussed conspiracy theories; members of the site did not
respond warmly to his posts. Loughner espoused conspiracy theories about the
9/11 attacks, the New World Order, and beliefs in a 2012 apocalypse, among
other controversial viewpoints. Reports appearing after the shooting noted
similarities between the statements made by Loughner and those publicized by
the conspiracy theorist David Wynn Miller. The Anti-Defamation League's report
also confirmed Loughner's longstanding interest in conspiracy theories.
Views
on religion
Journalists
had speculated that Loughner was anti-Semitic due to his attack on Rep.
Giffords, who is Jewish, but the Anti-Defamation League's analysis of the
messages by Loughner found that he had a more generalized dislike of religion,
and of government. Loughner declined to state his religion in his Army
application. In his "Final Thoughts" video, Loughner stated,
"No, I won't trust in God!" This comment, possibly a reference to the
U.S. motto "In God We Trust," which appears on U.S. currency, comes
after a complaint that U.S. currency is not backed by gold or silver,
indicating Loughner believed the currency was untrustworthy.
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Roadside sign at the scene the day of the
shooting.
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Tucson
shooting
Main
article: 2011 Tucson shooting
Preparation
Loughner
allegedly purchased the 9mm Glock pistol used in the shooting from a
Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson on November 30, 2010. The night before the
shooting, at 2:05 a.m. he left a message on a friend's voicemail saying,
"Hey man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later."
In a MySpace post the morning of the shooting at 4:12 am, he wrote,
"Goodbye friends. Please don't be mad at me. The literacy rate is below
5%. I haven't talked to one person who is literate. I want to make it out
alive. The longest war in the history of the United States. Goodbye. I'm
saddened with the current currency and job employment. I had a bully at school.
Thank you. P.S. --plead the fifth!"
Photos
on the MySpace page showed a close-up picture of a handgun sitting atop a
document titled "United States History."
The
attack
On
January 8, 2011, at 7:04 a.m. MST, Loughner went to a Walmart store in the
Foothills Mall to purchase ammunition, but left that store and completed his
purchase at a Walmart on North Cortaro Road at 7:28 a.m. He was stopped by
Arizona Game and Fish Department officer Alen Edward Forney at 7:34 a.m.
for running a red light, but once the officer determined there were no
outstanding warrants for Loughner, he was allowed to proceed to his destination
with a warning to drive carefully. Loughner took a taxi to a Safeway
supermarket location in Casas Adobes, where Rep. Giffords was holding a
constituents meeting. The shooting occurred at 10:10 a.m. MST.
Loughner
opened fire on Giffords from close range, as well as numerous bystanders,
killing six people. Thirteen other people were injured by gunfire, and one
person was injured while fleeing the scene of the shooting. Giffords, the
apparent target of the attack, was shot in the head and critically injured.
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A picture of Loughner taken by the Pima County
Sheriff's Office's forensic unit, which saw widespread distribution via media
outlets
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Arrest
and legal proceedings
Arrest
Loughner
was subdued by bystanders and was arrested by police, saying, "I plead the
Fifth," as he was taken into custody. A photograph taken by the Pima
County Sheriff's Office's forensic unit was released to the media on January
10, 2011 and published on front pages nationwide. The Washington Post
described the picture as "smirking and creepy, with hollow eyes
ablaze," while the art director for the New York Times said the
photo was featured on the front page because it "was the picture of the
day [...] it was intense and arresting. It invited you to look and study, and
wonder."
Charges
and imprisonment
Loughner
was charged in federal court with one count of attempted assassination of a
member of Congress, two counts of murder of a federal employee (Giffords' aide
and Judge Roll), and two counts of attempting to murder a federal employee,
based on his injury of two of Giffords' aides. He was indicted on three of the
charges on January 19, 2011. Loughner was held without bail in the Federal
Correctional Institution at Phoenix, kept isolated from other inmates 23 hours
a day and allowed out of his cell for one hour a day to shower and exercise. On
February 24, 2011, he was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in
Tucson.
Attorney
Judy Clarke, a former federal public defender who in the past had represented
suspects in several high profile murder and terrorism cases, was appointed to
represent Loughner in federal court. The entire federal judiciary of the state
of Arizona recused themselves from hearing the case because of their ties to
fellow judge, John Roll, who was killed. Federal prosecutors opposed motions to
move the case outside of Arizona because of pre-trial publicity. At the
direction of Ninth Circuit Appeals court Chief Judge Kozinski, the federal case
was assigned to the San Diego-based judge, Larry Alan Burns (from the Southern
District of California).
Prosecutors
representing Arizona, which has concurrent jurisdiction in the matter,
announced they intended to file murder and attempted murder charges on behalf
of the other victims, those who were not members of Congress or federal
employees (although they could legally file charges on behalf of all the
victims). Arizona law does not permit a verdict of "not guilty by reason
of insanity", but does allow for a verdict of "guilty but
insane."
Initial
pleading and additional charges
On
January 24, 2011, Loughner appeared at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse
in Phoenix, before Judge Larry Alan Burns from San Diego. Loughner, whose hair
had partially regrown since his arrest, smiled while presented with the charges
related to the shooting, including the attempted killing of Giffords and two of
her aides. Loughner's attorney, Judy Clarke, requested that Judge Burns select
a plea on her client's behalf, to which a plea of not guilty was recorded. When
Burns asked Clarke if Loughner understood the charges against him, she replied
that they were "not raising that issue" at the time. She did not
object to a request by prosecutors to have future hearings moved back to
Tucson. On March 3, 2011, a federal grand jury indicted Loughner on additional
charges of murder and attempted murder for a total of 49 counts. On March 9,
2011, Loughner pleaded not guilty to all 49 charges.
Relationship
with lawyers
On
May 25, 2011, Judge Burns stated, "I got some letters declaring some
conflict with his counsel...I intend to table them at this time. At such a
point that his competency is restored, if he wants to bring up the matter of
counsel, he can renew it then." The judge suppressed the letters from the
court record.
Medico-legal
proceedings
On
May 25, 2011, Judge Burns ruled Loughner was then incompetent to stand trial,
based on two medical evaluations. Court proceedings were suspended while
Loughner, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, received psychiatric
treatment at the psychiatric wing of the U.S. Medical Center for Federal
Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. He was scheduled to appear in court on
September 21, 2011, but that hearing was delayed until September 28, 2011, when
the judge reviewed whether he could understand the charges against him and
could assist in his own defense. (Loughner’s lawyers unsuccessfully objected to
him appearing at the hearing.) Loughner disrupted the court hearing with an
outburst, and was carried from the court room. According to the New York
Times, Loughner believed he succeeded in killing Giffords, and clashed with
his lawyer when she informed him that the congresswoman had survived. He was
judged still incompetent to stand trial following medical evaluations and a
hearing in May 2011.
Forced
medication rulings
On
June 26, 2011, Judge Burns ruled that prison doctors could forcibly medicate
Loughner with antipsychotic drugs in order to treat him to restore him to
competency for trial.
But,
on July 12, 2011, a three-judge federal appeals panel from the Ninth Circuit
ruled that Loughner could refuse anti-psychotic medication, since he "has
not been convicted of a crime, is presumptively innocent and is therefore
entitled to greater constitutional protections than a convicted inmate."
However, the ruling stated that it "does not preclude prison authorities
from taking other measures to maintain the safety of prison personnel, other
inmates and Loughner himself, including forced administration of tranquilizers".
A
week after the ruling, prison medical authorities resumed forcible treatment of
Loughner with the antipsychotic risperidone, this time citing Washington v.
Harper and stating the purpose of treatment was the need to control the
danger he posed to himself and others in prison, rather than rendering him fit
for trial. Loughner's defense team submitted an emergency motion to the US
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, claiming that this treatment was in
violation of their ruling and seeking an immediate injunction to halt
treatment. The request for an injunction was denied by the court, allowing
treatment to continue pending a full hearing into the matter. Arguments began
on August 30 as to the lawfulness of this treatment. In March 2012, a federal
appeals court denied a request by Loughner's lawyers to halt his forced
medication.
On
May 24, 2012 a federal judge ordered a competency hearing for June 27 (later
postponed until August 7) to determine Loughner's mental fitness to stand
trial. He remained at a federal prison hospital in Missouri pending the entry
of his plea. A request by Loughner's lawyers to rehear arguments on forced
medication was denied on June 5, 2012.
Guilty
plea and sentencing
On
Tuesday, August 7, 2012, Judge Burns found Loughner competent to stand trial
based on medical evaluations. Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 counts at the
hearing, which spared him the death penalty. The hearing began with Loughner
listening calmly to testimony from Dr. Christina Pietz, Loughner's forensic
psychologist, who testified that he had displayed depressive symptoms in 2006
and was formally diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2011. Dr. Pietz said that she
believed that, after having been forcibly medicated for more than a year,
Loughner had expressed remorse and was a changed individual. She said that he
was competent to stand trial and agree to a plea. Sentencing was set for
November 15, 2012 at 10 a.m. local time. The sentence could not include the
death penalty, because the guilty plea bargain was made with an assurance that
it would not be sought; Loughner under the law faced a mandatory sentence of
life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Former U.S. Representative
Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, U.S.
Representative Ron Barber, a former aide to Mrs. Giffords, U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder, and the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, John S. Leonardo, had
all approved the plea. It was offered and accepted after consultation with them
and with the families of the other victims.
By
pleading guilty in the deal, Loughner automatically waived his right to any
further appeals and cannot later alter his plea to an insanity plea. Loughner
must pay a restitution of $19 million, $1 million for each of the victims. He
forfeited the weapons he used in the incident, and any money earned from
efforts to sell his story. Loughner calmly answered that he understood each
charge, and signed his initials after each page of the agreement and shakily
signed his name to it, dated August 6.
On
November 8, 2012, Loughner appeared in front of U.S. District Court Judge Larry
Alan Burns in a court in Tucson. He was sentenced to serve seven consecutive
life terms plus 140 years in prison without parole. Even though he was
convicted and sentenced in federal court, there was still a possibility that
Loughner could be tried for murder and other crimes in Arizona court. Pima
County Attorney Barbara LaWall declared later that afternoon that she would not
prosecute Jared Loughner on behalf of the State of Arizona. LaWall explained
that her decision would afford the victims and their families, as well as the
community in Tucson and Pima County, an opportunity to move forward with their
lives. She said that, after speaking and consulting personally with each of the
surviving victims and with the family members of those killed, it was clear
that they would not be benefitted by a State prosecution. Surviving victims and
family members told LaWall that they are “completely satisfied with the federal
prosecution”, that “justice has been served”, and that the federal sentence is
“suitably severe”. He is currently serving his seven life sentences plus 140
years at The United States
Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, MO.
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