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Meet Jared Loughner, aged 22, held without bail on federal charges of murder and attempted assassination. NBC assigned Miguel Almaguer to the courthouse in Phoenix for his 15-minute appearance to file a not guilty plea. Almaguer noted that one of the murder counts involved the killing of a federal judge so the court's own public defenders recused themselves. Appointed instead was defense attorney Judy Clarke, "no stranger to high profile cases." Previous clients include Ted Kaczynski, convicted as the UnaBomber, and Timothy McVeigh, bomber of the Murrah Federal Building. Clarke has "the skill and perseverance in her career to do really good work in the most difficult of circumstances," a public defender told Almaguer.
CBS assigned Ben Tracy and ABC assigned Pierre Thomas to investigate what possible motive might have inspired the accused man. Loughner had applied to join the army but the recruitment center rejected him. He had attended the community college in Pima County but had been suspended. Yet his rage was apparently directed towards his federal representative instead. ABC's Thomas read Loughner's postings online and found "an obsession with violence and paranoia about the government." CBS' Tracy found "an online trail of anti-government videos." Tracy quoted from Loughner's YouTube slideshow: "The government is applying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar."
Back in 2007, Loughner had confronted Giffords: "What is government, if words have no meaning?" Tracy reported that Loughner "never got over" the fact that Giffords did not answer him. ABC's Thomas added, unhelpfully, that unidentified "investigators" had speculated to him that "Loughner became obsessed with the Giffords because of their American lifestyle"--whatever that means.
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