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Tucson shooting rampage suspect Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix on Monday to federal charges of attempting to assassinate US Representative Gabrielle Giffords and attempting to murder two of her staff members. The 22-year-old college dropout stands accused of opening fire on Giffords and a crowd of bystanders outside a grocery store January 8, killing six people, including a federal judge, and wounding 13. Giffords was shot in the head but survived. Authorities have stated Giffords was his primary target. The rampage has renewed vigorous partisan debate over gun control in the US and whether the vitriolic tone of US politics had encouraged violence against elected officials, though Loughner's motives for the attack remained unclear. Investigators for the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Arizona are pressing ahead with parallel criminal investigations. The not-guilty plea was entered for each of the three charges contained in a federal grand jury indictment returned last Wednesday. If found guilty, Loughner could face up to life in prison for trying to kill the lawmaker, while the two attempted murder charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. The indictment did not include any murder charges for two other federal employees who were slain - Judge John Roll, the chief federal judge in Arizona who had stopped at the supermarket to talk to Giffords, or Gabe Zimmerman, the lawmaker's director of community outreach. Before federal prosecutors can charge Loughner with murder, a review will be carried by both the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder on whether the death penalty can be sought. US District Judge Larry Burns set March 9 as the next court date in the federal case. Burns, normally based in San Diego, California, was appointed to the case after Roll's col-leagues on the Arizona federal bench recused themselves. |
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