Jared Loughner making 'progress' toward standing trial, judge says

Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner has made “measurable progress” toward recovering mental competency to stand trial in the deadly rampage, a federal judge said Monday in ordering another four-month commitment at a prison mental hospital.

U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns said there was “reason for optimism” that Loughner could be brought to trial in the foreseeable future on the 49 felony counts stemming from the Jan. 8, 2011, shootings that left six people dead and 13 wounded, including former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Burns cited a psychiatrist’s report from the mental hospital in Missouri where Loughner has been forcibly treated with anti-psychotic drugs for almost a year. The report says Loughner, 23, has become more cooperative with prison and hospital staff and has been taking part in group therapy sessions.

The judge referred to Loughner’s unruly and bizarre behavior at earlier court appearances before him in Tucson in observing that “there was no way in my judgment then that he could have meaningfully participated in any kind of group therapy.”

Attorneys for the government asked Burns to give them access to the prison psychiatrist’s notes from discussions with Loughner. Burns said he was prepared to grant the request after reviewing the reports to delete any information that might be subject to Loughner’s attorney-client privilege.

Excerpts of the mental health reports read by the judge painted a picture of a much-improved defendant, who was deemed incompetent to stand trial  in May.

Loughner has undergone two four-month commitments for treatment, during which his attorneys have waged a legal battle to spare him from being medicated against his will with drugs they say could harm or kill him.

Loughner could face the death penalty if convicted. 

Burns indicated that the new four-month commitment would possibly be the last.

While hailing the progress made over the last four months, Burns said the prison doctors believe “he is not there yet” in terms of being capable of assisting in his own defense. The judge said the court might have to "try something else" if Loughner isn't ready for trial by the June 7 end of his latest commitment.

Neither Loughner’s lead attorney, Judy Clarke, nor Assistant U.S. Atty. Wallace Kleindienst, appearing for the government via videoconference from Tucson, made new arguments to Burns for or against his stated inclination to give the government four more months to work on Loughner’s mental capacity.

-- Carol J. Williams in San Diego

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Photo: Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner in January 2011. Credit: Pima County Sheriff's Department 

Jared Loughner faces court hearing over forced drugging

A federal judge is today scheduled to consider whether to commit Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner to an additional four months of forced treatment for schizophrenia in a bid to restore his mental competency to stand trial.

Loughner's attorneys have opposed the involuntary medication regimen ordered by U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns and were expected to reiterate their arguments during today's hearing in San Diego. They argue that the government doesn't have the right to force what they say are dangerous anti-psychotic drugs on a pre-trial detainee who hasn't been convicted of any crime.

Burns indicated last week, however, that he was inclined to authorize a third period of commitment as doctors treating the 23-year-old suspect at a prison hospital in Missouri report that he has made substantial progress toward being fit to face trial on 49 felony counts that could lead to a death penalty.

Loughner is accused of carrying out the Jan. 8, 2011, rampage outside a Tucson supermarket that killed six and injured 13 others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The Democrat left her House seat last month to devote herself to her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head.

Loughner was declared incompetent to stand trial in May, following an initial evaluation term at the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo.

-- Carol J. Williams

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Photo: Jared Lee Loughner on Feb. 22, 2011. Credit: U.S. Marshals Service / Associated Press 

Court asked to reconsider ruling on bone marrow compensation

The Obama administration has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision last month to allow compensation to people donating bone marrow cells harvested from their bloodstreams.

In a petition for rehearing by the full U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. argued that the court ignored the intent of Congress to shield all organ sales from "market forces" when a three-judge panel ruled unanimously on Dec. 1 that marrow cells collected from blood aren't covered by the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act.

Congress amended that statute in 2005, after the less-invasive bloodstream harvesting of marrow was in widespread use. It clearly intended that such harvesting also be covered by the ban on organ sales, Holder said in the government's appeal, which was filed with the San Francisco-based court Tuesday.

Jeff Rowes, the Institute for Justice lawyer who successfully argued the case for compensation on behalf of a group of cancer patients, their families, a transplant surgeon and the California group MoreMarrowDonors.org, said he doubted the 9th Circuit would grant an 11-judge rehearing because the three-judge opinion was unanimous and doesn't conflict with other case law.

MoreMarrowDonors.org wants to begin a pilot project to attract new members to a national bone marrow registry by offering up to $3,000 in scholarships, housing payments or charitable donations to volunteers whose bone marrow is a promising match for one of the thousands waiting for life-saving transplants.

In its ruling last month, the 9th Circuit panel said bone marrow cells filtered from the donor's bloodstream were blood parts, which can be sold legally, not organ parts covered by the 1984 ban. That law was enacted when bone marrow donation involved a surgical extraction through needles inserted into the spongy marrow in hip bones -- a painful procedure legislators feared would be disproportionately endured by the poor if financial inducement were allowed.

"Congress has not distinguished between donations of cells from fatty tissue and donations of cells from peripheral blood," Holder said in the appeal. "The panel fundamentally erred in creating a distinction that undermines the scheme created by Congress."

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Photo: U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. Credit: Associated Press

Stun-gun use in Seattle, Maui cases was excessive, court says

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that police in Seattle and Maui used excessive force in separate cases involving stun guns, deeming the jolts fired at a pregnant woman and a wife involved in a domestic dispute to be violations of the women's constitutional rights.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judged the debilitating stun-gun blasts to be excessive because in neither case did the women pose any threat to the safety of the officers.

But the court, sitting in its full 11-judge forum used to decide important questions of law, granted immunity from prosecution to the police officers involved because the law governing stun-gun use wasn't yet clear at the time of the 2004 and 2006 incidents.

Four of the 11 judges dissented in part, including Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who wrote that he was concerned that branding the use of stun guns as excessive force would lead police to use more dangerous methods to subdue those resisting arrest.

In the 2004 incident in Seattle, seven-months-pregnant Malaika Brooks was stopped for entering a 20-mph school zone at 32 mph.

She refused to sign the traffic ticket or get out of the car when police threatened to arrest her.

After a half-hour standoff and the arrival of two backup officers, police fired three blasts of the taser to her thigh, arm and neck.

When Brooks fell over, immobilized, police dragged her out of the car onto the pavement, laid her face down and handcuffed her.

Almost two years later, Jayzel Mattos summoned Maui police to a domestic disturbance at her home, saying her husband, Troy Mattos, was drunk and abusive.

When four police officers arrived and one moved to arrest Troy Mattos, his wife stepped between them and asked everyone to calm down.

One of the officers deployed his stun gun in dart mode, causing Jayzel Mattos to collapse to the floor.
Both women sued the police officers, claiming their 4th Amendment right to be free from excessive force had been violated.

Monday's ruling by the San Francisco-based appeals court could now establish law that stun-gun use is excessive if police aren't facing a threat of harm.

That legal clarification could lead to officers being denied immunity from prosecution in any future excessive-force stun-gun incidents.

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Photo: One type of stun gun, a Taser International X26 with cartridge and spent probes. Credit: Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times

Loughner should stay in Tucson prison, attorney tells court

 

 

Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner's mental condition has improved since his transfer back to Arizona for legal proceedings and he should be allowed to stay there, his attorney told a federal appeals court panel Thursday.

Loughner, 23, is fighting a court order issued by a federal judge last week that he can be committed to a prison mental hospital in Springfield, Mo., for another four months in an effort to restore his competency to stand trial. He faces 49 felony charges related to a January shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

He was ruled incompetent to assist in his own defense after an evaluation at the Missouri prison hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia and delusions.

How and where to treat Loughner has been in dispute since U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns in May ordered him committed. Loughner's lawyers have objected to his forced treatment with anti-psychotic drugs, arguing that as a pretrial detainee he has the legal right to refuse medication he fears could harm or kill him.

Loughner’s condition has improved noticeably while in a Tucson prison, where his parents and other family members have been able to visit him, defense attorney Ellis M. Johnston III told the emergency motions panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Christina M. Cabanillas said that the government opposed keeping Loughner in Arizona and that the constant oversight he requires puts a heavy burden on the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security at the Tucson prison.

"There is an abundance of evidence demonstrating that the medication the defendant is on is assisting him, not hurting him," Cabanillas said.

At least two of the judges indicated they agreed with her. The panel didn’t indicate when it would rule, but a decision is expected within weeks.

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--Carol J. Williams

Photo: Jared Lee Loughner in a courtroom sketch from last week's hearing in Tucson. Credit: Bill Robles / Associated Press