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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Accused escapes death penalty
Loughner (CP)
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Giffords (CP)
TUCSON, Ariz. -- The accused in a shooting that left a U.S. congresswoman wounded pleaded guilty Tuesday to going on the rampage that killed six other people. The plea spares Jared Lee Loughner the death penalty in an attack that gained worldwide attention.
The plea came soon after a federal judge had found that months of forcibly medicating Loughner to treat his schizophrenia had made the 23-year-old college dropout competent to understand the gravity of the charges against him and assist in his defence.
Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman who was the intended target, continues to recover from the January 2011 shooting at an Arizona political gathering. She has left her Congress post.
Among the dead were Arizona's chief federal judge and a Giffords' aide. Twelve other people aside from Giffords were wounded.
"I plead guilty," Loughner said.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The outcome was welcomed by some victims, including Giffords, as a way to avoid a lengthy, possibly traumatic trial and years of legal wrangling over a death sentence.
His hair closely cropped, Loughner was not the smiling, bald-headed suspect captured in a mugshot soon after the shooting.
Loughner sat quietly throughout the hearing and smiled at one point when a psychologist testifying about his competence remarked that he had bonded with one of the federal prison guards.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 8, 2012 A4
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