Jared Loughner

Jared Loughner. On January 8, 2011 U. S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with eighteen other people at a public meeting in a grocery store parking lot near Tucson Arizona. Six of the eighteen people shot that day died. This included Arizona District Court Chief Judge John Roll and nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green. Gifford was Holding a meeting called “Congress on Your Corner” in a Safeway store when she was shot through the head at point blank range. 22-year old Jared Loughner, a tucson man, was arrested at the scene.

Federal prosecutors filed five charges against him, including the attempted assassination of a member of Congress and the assassination of a federal judge. Even though Loughner had a history of drug possession charges and had been suspended by his college for disruptive behavior, the motive for the shooting remains unclear. Invoking his right to remain silent , Loughner did not cooperate with authorities. Jared was found to be Incompetent to stand trial based on medical evaluations by a judge. As a young man in high school Loughner seemed ordinary enough.

Occasionally he seemed withdrawn, as a normal teen would be, and a bit nerdy. Loughner loved music and played the saxophone well. Sometime around after Loughner dropped out of Mountain View High School, he didn’t seem the same. He began drinking and using drugs including pot and hallucinogens like acid. Neighbors said that Loughner was not hostile toward anyone but he certainly did not warm up to anyone either. He didn’t care what others thought of him. He had his own opinions and out looks on things and wasn’t afraid to share them.

Loughner’s friends started noticed a change happening. Loughner started to do strange things. For example he spent months working out so that he could join the army. Then after traveling to the military processing station he told an Army official that he smoked marijuana excessively. Later Loughner passed a drug test, which meant he had not been smoking for at least a couple of weeks. After the Army incident Loughner’s behavior became more erratic. He started having run-ins with Police for drug possession and alcohol and vandalizing street signs.

Loughner started to think that the Government was trying to control him and everyone else in the US. He lost his job at quiznos and an animal shelter because he refused to follow instructions. When classes at Pima Community College began, fellow students were frightened by Loughner’s behavior. “He had this hysterical kind of laugh, laughing to himself,” says Benjamin McGahee, his math professor. McGahee says that Loughner would say nonsensical things about “denying math. ” One student in the back of McGahee’s classroom said she was scared for her life, literally.

By now Loughner was clearly developing a mental illness. Many signs suggest he had delusional disorder or schizophrenia. The average age of onset for both illnesses is roughly 20, about when Loughner started showing these symptoms. Loughner Became obsessed with lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a dream state you can enter when you’re half asleep where you are aware that you’re dreaming. Loughner used drugs to keep him from falling into deep sleep which then encourage lucid dreaming.

Last year the European Science Foundation reported that lucid dreaming creates distinct patterns of electrical activity in the brain that have similarities to the patterns made by psychotic conditions. Paranoid delusions can happen when lucid dermas are played over and over again when the person awakes. According to his friend Bryce Tierney, Loughner was replaying his lucid dreams in a dream journal. Loughner is being treated at a Missouri prison facility here he has been forcible medicated for about seven months in a bid to try to make him mentally fit to stand trial.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges from the Shooting in Tucson. Loughner has not been able to stand trill because U. S. District Judge Larry Burns has ruled that he is not mentally fit to stand trial since experts have concluded that Loughner suffers from schizophrenia. JUdge Burns says that Loughner will eventually be ready for trial after he receives more treatment . Loughner’s current stay is set to the end June 7th. Even though it is said that Loughner’s condition is improving, His lawyers ave been fighting the governments efforts to forcible medicate him. Over the summer of 2011 the appeals court temporarily stopped Loughners forced medication, but it resumed when mental health experts concluded that Loughner’s condition was worsening with out the medication. Since his arrest Loughner has shown bizarre behavior. He was forcibly removed from a May 25 Court hearing when Loughner lowered his head inches from the court room table then lifted his head and began a loud, angry rant.

But since he has been forcibly medicated his mental condition has improved. Loughner has sat still and expressionless for seven hours in a hearing in September . But the problem is weather a mentally ill person who is considered very dangerous should be medicated. Prosecutes say the decisions is for officials to make but Loughner’s lawyers say its up to the judge. So far prison officials have decided to medicate Loughner. His lawyers say that forcibly medication Loughner is violating his due-process rights.