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Gunman in Giffords Shooting Sentenced to 7 Life Terms Gunman in Giffords Shooting Sentenced to 7 Life Terms
(about 4 hours later)
TUCSON — Jared L. Loughner was sentenced to multiple terms of life in prison Thursday at a court hearing punctuated by raw emotion as former Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark E. Kelly confronted the man who shot her in the head at close range during a rampage here last year that left six people dead and 12 others wounded. TUCSON — Jared L. Loughner was sentenced Thursday to seven consecutive terms of life in prison at a court hearing punctuated by raw emotion as former Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark E. Kelly, for the first time confronted the man who shot her in the head during a rampage last year that left 6 dead and 12 others wounded.
As a packed courtroom fell silent, Mr. Kelly, with Ms. Giffords at his side, told Mr. Loughner, 24, that he had failed in his effort to create a world as dark as the one he inhabited. Ms. Giffords, her right arm in a sling, stared at Mr. Loughner as Mr. Kelly delivered his defiant remarks before a packed courtroom, from a dais a few feet from the defendant’s chair.
“You may have put a bullet through her head, but you haven’t put a dent on her spirit and her commitment to make the world a better place,” said Mr. Kelly about Ms. Giffords, who was gravely wounded and whose arm was in a sling on Thursday. “By making death and producing tragedy, you sought to extinguish the beauty of life, to diminish potential, to strain love and to cancel ideas,” Mr. Kelly said. “You tried to create for all of us a world as dark and evil as your own. But remember it always: You failed.”
Ms. Giffords, who resigned from Congress in January 2012, and who has difficulty speaking as a result of her injury, “struggles to walk, her right arm is paralyzed, she’s partially blind,” Mr. Kelly said. Mr. Loughner’s punishment — in addition to the life terms, he was sentenced to 140 years in prison — came as no surprise. It was a condition of the guilty plea he entered on Aug. 7, admitting to the shootings and bringing to an end a case that had prompted much soul-searching about mental health treatment and the country’s gun laws.
Ms. Giffords did not speak at the hearing, at which victims described the impact of Mr. Loughner’s January 2011 shooting spree, but looked directly at Mr. Loughner as her husband read from a statement. From the bench in Federal District Court, Judge Larry A. Burns said he was not going to make “political statements,” that he was just “a single federal judge” who had “no intention to change the law.” Still, he questioned the wisdom of allowing the unrestricted sale of high-capacity magazines, like the one Mr. Loughner used to carry out his crimes.
“After today, after this moment, Gabby and I are done thinking about you,” Mr. Kelly concluded. With that, he and Ms. Giffords walked away. “I don’t understand the social utility of allowing citizens to have magazines with 30 bullets in them,” Judge Burns said.
Mr. Loughner was sentenced to seven consectutive terms of life in prison, nearly three months to the day after pleading guilty to 19 criminal counts in federal court, including murder and the attempted assassination of Ms. Giffords, the target of the attack. For Mr. Kelly, though, who has been Ms. Giffords’s unrelenting companion and her voice as she has struggled to articulate her words since the shooting, the politics of gun control is the “elephant in the room.” He denounced politicians who are “afraid to do something as simple as have a meaningful debate about our gun laws,” singling out Gov. Jan Brewer, whom he called “feckless,” and the Legislature, which “thought it appropriate to busy itself naming an official Arizona state gun just weeks after this tragedy.”
Mr. Loughner waived his right to address the court, and when asked by Larry A. Burns, the federal court judge overseeing the case to confirm that decision verbally, he responded, “That’s true," as he slurred his words — a hallmark of his speech patterns during recent court appearances. Mr. Kelly went on, “After Columbine, after Virginia Tech, after Tucson and after Aurora,” the Colorado suburb where a gunman killed 12 and wounded 58 in a movie theater in July, “we have done nothing.”
One after another Thursday morning, Mr. Loughner’s victims took to the dais, at times addressing Judge Burns, but usually speaking to Mr. Loughner, whom they turned to their right to look at. A spokesman for the governor said in a statement that “on this solemn occasion,” Ms. Brewer “isn’t interested in engaging in politics.”
Congressman Ron Barber, an aide to Ms. Giffords’ at the time of the shooting who was struck by a bullet in the leg, told him, “There’s no way to make sense of those senseless acts.” He said he would never forget seeing one of his colleagues, Gabe Zimmerman, 30, die by his side. “Now you must pay the price. You must pay the price for the terror you caused.” Ms. Giffords did not say anything, only stroking her husband’s back when they slowly made their way back to their seats.
Turning to Mr. Loughner’s parents, he said, “Please know that I and my family hold no animosity toward you.” On Jan. 8, 2011, Mr. Loughner, now 24, arrived at a constituents meeting hosted by Ms. Giffords, then a member of the House of Representatives, in a shopping center parking lot. He had a loaded Glock 9-millimeter pistol and carried 60 extra rounds of ammunition. In less than 30 seconds, he fired 31 shots.
While Mr. Loughner watched the parade of victims stoically, his mother, Amy Loughner, sniffled loudly and convulsed as people described the horror unleashed by her son. Randy Loughner was also in the courtroom, the couple sitting on the opposite side of the room as Ms. Giffords and other victims. Onlookers tackled and restrained him when he paused to reload. One of them was Pamela Simon, an aide and close friend of Ms. Giffords’s who was shot by Mr. Loughner and was one of seven victims to speak in court.
Pamela Simon, another aide who was also injured, taught at the middle school Mr. Loughner attended. She said she remembered him as “a kid who loved music.” Ms. Simon, who taught at the middle school Mr. Loughner had attended, said she remembered him as “a kid who loved music.” On Thursday, she told him, “You remind us that too often we either do not notice the signs of mental illness, or we just choose to look away.”
On Thursday, she told him, “You remind us that too often we either do not notice the signs of mental illness, or we just choose to look away.” Mavy Stoddard, whom Mr. Loughner shot three times, told him she cradled her wounded husband, Dorwan, in her arms and whispered, “Breathe deeply, honey.”
Mavy Stoddard, who was shot three times, told Mr. Loughner she cradled her wounded husband, Dorwan, in her arms and whispered, “Breathe deeply, honey.” Ten minutes later, he was dead.
Ten minutes later, he was dead. “I wished the mental-health people could have known that you needed help,” Ms. Stoddard said, “but that gave you no right to take what we had.” Mr. Loughner stared at each of them, virtually motionless. He slurred his only words, “That’s right,” which he spoke after the judge asked if he had indeed waived his right to address the court.
Mr. Loughner sat staring at each one of them, his head tilted to the left, his body barely moving. He had been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but was deemed competent to agree to the plea deal, which makes him ineligible for parole or to appeal. He has been held at a federal hospital in Missouri for more than a year, undergoing psychiatric evaluations and treatment. On Thursday, Judge Burns said he should stay “in a place where he can get continual medical treatment.”
Mr. Loughner, who has been held at a federal hospital in Missouri for more than a year undergoing psychiatric examinations, has been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but he was deemed competent in August to agree to the plea deal, under which he is not eligible for parole or to appeal his sentence. His mother, Amy Loughner, sniffled loudly at times, convulsing as people described the horror her son had unleashed. His father, Randy, was also there. Representative Ron Barber, a close aide of Ms. Giffords’s at the time of the shooting who was struck by a bullet in the leg, told them, “Please know that I and my family hold no animosity toward you.”
On Jan. 8, 2011, Mr. Loughner arrived at a public event being hosted by Ms. Giffords, then a member of the United States House of Representatives, at a Tucson shopping center. He was armed with a loaded Glock 9-millimeter pistol and carrying 60 rounds of extra ammunition. To Mr. Loughner, he said, “You must pay the price.”
In less than 30 seconds, he fired 31 shots, killing six people and injuring 13 others. He stopped shooting only when he paused to reload. He was eventually tackled and restrained by onlookers. He has never explained what had compelled him.
The dead included John M. Roll, 63, a federal court judge and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green.
Ms. Giffords was gravely wounded after being shot in the head.
On Thursday, Suzie Heilman, who brought Christina to the event with Ms. Giffords as a way for her to learn about democracy, told Mr. Loughner in a voice trembling with anger, “You turned a civics lesson into a nightmare.”
Mr. Loughner, a community college student, had originally pleaded not guilty to 49 charges connected with the shooting spree. He had for years exhibited signs of mental illness, including yelling out in high school classes and complaining about voices in his head.
At a court hearing in May 2011, he interrupted the proceedings with an incoherent outburst and was removed from the courtroom. It was at that hearing that Judge Larry A. Burns, a federal distirct court judge, ruled Mr. Loughner incompetent to stand trial.
Mr. Loughner was initially being medicated by force, under orders of the Bureau of Prisons, but has been voluntarily taking medication since this summer.
Dr. Christina Pietz, a psychologist who has been treating Mr. Loughner, said that over time he had become cognizant of his actions.
Dr. Pietz testified at the August hearing that Mr. Loughner’s feelings had evolved from regret for failing to kill Ms. Giffords, against whom he had harbored a secret grudge for several years, to contrition for wounding her and others and for taking people’s lives.
“I especially cried for the child” and “yelled a lot because it hurt so bad,” Mr. Loughner once told Dr. Pietz, she testified, reading from notes she had kept of their encounters.

Timothy Williams contributed reporting from New York.

Timothy Williams contributed reporting from New York.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 8, 2012Correction: November 8, 2012

An earlier version of this article and headline misstated the number of life sentences received by Jared L. Loughner. It is seven, not six. The article also misspelled the given name of a woman shot by Mr. Loughner. It is Mavy Stoddard, not Mary.

An earlier version of this article and headline misstated the number of life sentences received by Jared L. Loughner. It is seven, not six. The article also misspelled the given name of a woman shot by Mr. Loughner. It is Mavy Stoddard, not Mary.