Loughner Trial Likely Heading West
Via WaPo: Federal authorities plan to move trial of Tucson shooting suspect.
Federal court authorities are planning to move the trial of the alleged gunman in the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson to San Diego because of extensive pretrial publicity in Arizona, federal law enforcement sources said Sunday night.
Of course, pre-trial publicity is hardly an Arizona-only issue. Still, in highly emotional cases such as this, a venue change makes some sense. A similar move took place in the trial of Timothy McVeigh, where the trial was moved from Oklahoma to Colorado.
This is why I always thought the benefits of trying KSM in NYC were preposterous. It wasn’t going to happen there anyway.
Perhaps this is an opportunity to discuss the “not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect” defense.
I’ve often wondered if our legal system could use an addition of “guilty by reason of mental disease or defect” with mandatory treatment as the sentence. The difference in phraseology may make the acknowledgment of the mental illness more palatable to those who are infuriated when people are found “not guilty” because they suffer from mental illness.
Jack, some states have a “Guilty But Mentally Ill” verdict, which is different from “Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity.” I don’t know the particulars of how they differ.
I haven’t commented on the forced-commitment issue or mental defenses. FWIW, I think our system is pretty messed up.
We used to commit too many, and now we do too few.
We know more about brain defects, but use a 19th century concept of insanity.
Personally, I think we need Institutions For The Criminally Insane, and life commitment. I don’t expect that great a shift, though.
Indeed, looking into it further, Arizona state law provides for a sentence of guilty, but insane, which means that the person can be imprisoned if the convict recovers enough to leave a mental institution. I question whether someone could be executed under that scenario.
JP:
Can we name it the Arkham Asylum?