The judge presiding over the federal case against alleged Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner reversed his own ruling Monday, and is now saying that the defendant’s attorneys cannot select their own psychiatrist to offer up a second opinion on the 22-year-old’s mental state.
U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said he made a mistake in saying Loughner’s lawyers could seek out an independent psychiatrist to examine their client to verify or dispute the findings of the court-appointed experts examining him at a prison facility in Missouri.
Instead, Burns suggested Monday that a psychiatrist with no prisons affiliation be court-appointed. A final ruling will be made by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Loughner was moved to a specialized Bureau of Prisons facility in Springfield, Mo., last week for a battery of mental tests to determine his competence to stand trial, and his attorneys worry that the federal examiners may not be impartial.
The 9th Circuit issued a partial stay on Friday to stop the distribution of videos of Loughner’s mental exams to attorneys on both sides of the case until after the judges have full considered the matter.
— Jennifer Epstein
Source: http://feeds.politico.com/click.phdo?i=3173a4470bd1bbaca55477abc219f279
Donald M. Payne Donna Christian-Christensen Donna Edwards Doris O. Matsui
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