GUILTY AZ - Six killed, 13 injured in shooting at Gabrielle Giffords event, 8 Jan 2011 - #2

[songline]

i.b.nora, thank you. I've seen it gradually change throughout the week. I thought it was errors, (there are errors too), but the Sheriff said the official count was 20 last week. I think on Sunday. The 20th person he said was the person in the above article who drove himself to the hospital. Then it gradually became 19. Guess I can call someone about that.

I'd rather read 19 than 20.

BBM - you are a beautiful spirit
:blowkiss: you deserve a big kiss.
:grouphug: and hug.

 

[i.b.nora]

Quite a much longer Associated Press article:

Doctors remove bone chips from Giffords eye socket

This is just a tidbit.

"And doctors successfully performed a surgery on Giffords' eye socket to remove bone fragments to relieve pressure on her eye. There were no complications from the surgery, said Dr. Michael Lemole."

 

[suzihawk]

From James Fuller's profile on hypnothoughts.com

About Me:
Non-deep pocket with a lot of heart. Began life as a computer operator, military service leading to non-physical disability, unable to resume career...
http://www.hypnothoughts.com/profile/JamesEricFuller


During an interview with CBS 5 News reporter Elias Johnson just five days after he was shot, Fuller said the shooting made him realize he would save the world some day.


Fuller also told Johnson he went to Rep. Gabriel Gifford's public event because he felt he had to "protect" her.

http://www.kpho.com/news/26506251/detail.html


I dunno... maybe it's just me, but it seems he just may be a more socially functionable version of Loughner.

JMO

 

[panthera]

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Reportedly Smiles at Her Husband, Undergoes Successful Eye-Socket Surgery

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords smiles at her husband and has even given him back rubs, her doctors said today.

The tracheotomy tube in the throat of the badly wounded Arizona congresswoman prevents her from speaking to her husband, Capt. Mark Kelly, but the doctors said the smiles were important indicators.

"It implies she is recognizing him, and that she's interacting perhaps with a more familiar way with him," Dr. Michael Lemole, the neurosurgeon treating Giffords at University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., said at a news conference today.

more at http://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-gabrielle-giffords-husband-captain-mark-kelly-opens/story?id=12629468

 

[i.b.nora]

snip ...
During an interview with CBS 5 News reporter Elias Johnson just five days after he was shot, Fuller said the shooting made him realize he would save the world some day.

Fuller also told Johnson he went to Rep. Gabriel Gifford's public event because he felt he had to "protect" her.

http://www.kpho.com/news/26506251/detail.html

I dunno... maybe it's just me, but it seems he just may be a more socially functionable version of Loughner.

JMO

I can't get the videos there to play so I don't know if those comments were part of bigger comments, or what, but on January 12, he and a couple of other survivors are talked about in this New York Times article:

Flashbacks and Lingering Questions for Survivors

This is some of what he says in The Times article:

""Mr. Fuller, the limousine driver, also supported Ms. Giffords but he went to see her for different reasons.

He became interested in politics only recently, and fell hard for liberal causes. He sends e-mail blasts denouncing “Replundercans.”

On Saturday, he stopped by Ms. Giffords’s event after his weekly tennis game expecting to see protesters, whom he had seen at previous Giffords events.

“I wanted to give her a boost and to protect her from the Tea Party crime syndicate and to shout them down,” he said. “I can make a lot of noise.”

There were no protesters, but he got into a heated argument with another person waiting to meet Ms. Giffords. An aide to Ms. Giffords, Gabriel Zimmerman, quickly stepped in to break them up. Mr. Zimmerman was killed in the shootings.

Mr. Fuller was shot in the left knee, and a bullet grazed his back. He was released from the hospital on Monday, but he has struggled to adjust to a life that feels inalterably different.

The night after the shooting, he could not fall asleep. He found himself drawn to the words of the Declaration of Independence, which he memorized while he was unemployed and living in a trailer in Boise, Idaho, in 1980.

The language soothed him that night. But he still has flashes of anger."

There is more but this bit seemed to relate to what he told the KPOU person about protecting her.

My non professional opinion is that his malady is more likely to be something related to his military service. I believe he served in Vietnam.

 

[Nancy2441]

Arizona Statute says Giffords congressional seat will be considered vacant after three months:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/17/exp.todd.giffords.seat.endangered.cnn?hpt=T1

 

[i.b.nora]

Expert disputes effect of Arizona statute on Giffords' congressional seat

Posted: Monday, January 17, 2011 3:50 pm | Updated: 4:34 pm, Mon Jan 17, 2011.
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services |

"Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords can't be forced from office by state law, no matter how long she is absent, the former dean of the Arizona State University College of Law said today.

Paul Bender said a report published in the Washington Post is based on a flawed premise of the scope of Arizona law. The paper said Giffords' office could be declared vacant under state law if she is absent for at least three months.

"When a vacancy exists is up to Congress,'' Bender said."

more ...

 

[panthera]

Let's just pray Congress doesn't have to worry about that and she's back to work in three months.....rayer:

 

[Nova]

Ok, but why California? That state is already is financial crisis. The last thing it needs is an expensive, media-circus, politically heated trial. If Loughner is to be tried by his peers, wouldn't it make better sense to hold the trial in Alaska?

If they are moving the trial to another state, we must be talking about federal court, yes? Most of those costs will be covered by the federal government, not CA.

ETA: Sorry. i.b.Nora answered this one on the previous page.

 

[LinasK]

Let's just pray Congress doesn't have to worry about that and she's back to work in three months.....rayer:

By TAMARA AUDI And EVAN PEREZ

• JANUARY 17, 2011, 8:06 P.M. ET

TUCSON, Ariz.—U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could leave her Tucson hospital within weeks or even days as she continues to recover from the shooting here nine days ago, her doctors said Monday.
Her family has begun to search for a rehabilitation center for the congresswoman to continue her treatment, doctors said.
"The family is looking at all their resources. They have the whole country available," G. Michael Lemole Jr., Ms. Giffords's neurosurgeon, said at a news conference Monday.

<snip>

Doctors said the plans now underway for what is expected to be a long rehabilitation process amount to another testament to how rapidly and well Ms. Giffords is healing from a gunshot wound to the head. Doctors have called her survival and recovery miraculous.
On Monday, Ms. Giffords was recovering from surgery over the weekend to repair her right eye socket, which was damaged in the shooting.
The bullet entered the left side of Ms. Giffords's brain, creating pressure that pushed bone fragments into her right eye, doctors said. Surgeons they repaired the right socket with titanium metal mesh. That eye remains swollen as it heals, they said.
Ms. Giffords's left eye, apparently undamaged in the attack, "is doing great," said Lynn Polonski, an eye surgeon who operated on her right eye.
Doctors had performed emergency surgery earlier in the week to relieve pressure on the eye, but didn't want to do the complete surgery for fear of putting too much stress on Ms. Giffords.
Dr. Polonski said it is unclear how much vision Ms. Giffords has now, or will have.
"We think her perception is there. The optic nerves look good," Dr. Polonski said in an interview after the conference. "We have to wait until she can tell us."
Doctors said the level of her cognitive abilities remains unclear, but over the past week she has responded to more complex commands and can track movement with at least one eye, they said. Ms. Giffords's husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, told her doctors that she has smiled at him, suggesting a higher level of awareness.
Dr. Lemole said some moves Ms. Giffords has made, like rubbing her husband's neck, "imply she is recognizing him" and suggest "all those higher cognitive levels of function are somewhat preserved." But her doctors also warned that inferring too much from such actions is highly speculative at this early stage. more at link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703396604576088303403067640.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

[PAXIMUS]

Ok, but why California? That state is already is financial crisis. The last thing it needs is an expensive, media-circus, politically heated trial. If Loughner is to be tried by his peers, wouldn't it make better sense to hold the trial in Alaska?

My guess is the reason they picked SD is because the defense attorney, Clark, and the new Judge are both from there.

Alaska lol good one.

 

[PAXIMUS]

Pax, I so appreciate your posts. You seem to be a truly compassionate lawyer (so I will refrain from lawyer jokes, lol!). I agree that by current legal standards he would not be found "not guilty by reason of insanity" which is why we have so many MI in prison (and on the streets).

The new criminal defense that you identified, Guilty but Insane, which I think is great- is this designated as a new plea alternative? I'd never heard of it. Is that on a state or federal level? (I know I'm showing my ignorance of the legal field here.)

I can already hear death penalty advocates freaking out about the unbearable burden this will place on the prison system. I'm surprised this hasn't been given much more publicity.

Hi there, limited time but here is a good article for you to read about that defense, I will comment in a bit:

http://www.astcweb.org/public/publi...notated-bibliography-of-the-GBMI-&-NGRI-pleas

 

[PAXIMUS]

If he's found guilty of killing a federal judge and sentenced to death there wouldn't be much point in pursuing any other charges, JMO.

The only small problem here is that for killing a judge to be a federal crime the judge has to be working in the capacity of a judge, at the Gabby rally he was not.

There are some legal ways around that but thats the gist of it.

 

[PAXIMUS]

Local news this evening says the federal agencies do not want the trial moved, they want him on trial in arizona.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Pax, I so appreciate your posts. You seem to be a truly compassionate lawyer (so I will refrain from lawyer jokes, lol!). I agree that by current legal standards he would not be found "not guilty by reason of insanity" which is why we have so many MI in prison (and on the streets).

The new criminal defense that you identified, Guilty but Insane, which I think is great- is this designated as a new plea alternative? I'd never heard of it. Is that on a state or federal level? (I know I'm showing my ignorance of the legal field here.)

I can already hear death penalty advocates freaking out about the unbearable burden this will place on the prison system. I'm surprised this hasn't been given much more publicity.

Does the suspect have a recorded medical record of being mentally ill?

imo

 

[Steely Dan]

Link

Doctors See Positive Signs as Key Test Looms
By TAMARA AUDI And THOMAS M. BURTON

...Neurologists who specialize in severe brain injuries such as Ms. Giffords's said each sign so far has been positive, demonstrating a general trajectory forward, yet not conclusive. But the true test will come, they said, when the breathing tube is removed.

Ms. Giffords's ability to speak hasn't yet been tested because of the tube, which could be removed very soon.

"She'll maybe say her first words and it could be a Neil Armstrong moment," said Stephan A. Mayer, chief of neuro-intensive care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia Medical Center.

Lori A. Schutter, director of neuroscience intensive care at the University of Cincinnati Hospital, said that if Ms. Giffords "has limited speech, there could be damage to a section called Broca's area, or connections from there to other areas of the brain." Dr. Schutter said young adults and children have better chances to develop new brain pathways to improve speech and other functions, but that it might be possible for the 40-year-old lawmaker to do so as well....

 

[Dr. Know?]

Jared's parents.

The weight of the world is on their shoulders...

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nation...eclusion_k9STxDKwzHHkGSFmNQz0BN#ixzz1BPIP745P

 

[hockeymom]

Jared's parents.

The weight of the world is on their shoulders...

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nation...eclusion_k9STxDKwzHHkGSFmNQz0BN#ixzz1BPIP745P

My heart goes out to them. My son had a very,minor brush with the law when he was in high school and because it was a slow news week,it made the local news. It was unbelievablely stressful and people act very weird around you. I can't imagine what they are going through.

 

[Dr. Know?]

No intention to move Arizona shooting trial: Justice Dept

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70H57020110118?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

 

[erynne936]

With all due respect, if the shooter's beef were merely personal and his aim merely revenge, he would have shot the congresswoman and left it at that.

Instead, he chose to shoot 18 other people, most of them presumably her supporters.

THAT is political.

I disagree. I don't think this was political at all. It was the product of mental illness, delusions, disorganized thinking, and paranoia.