President Obama is going to Tucson tomorrow. Jared Loughner had his first court appearance in federal court in Phoenix. The New York Times has a profile of his attorney, Judy Clarke. (Mine is here.)

Outgoing Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former District Attorney, has granted a pardon to Joe Arridy, executed in 1939, on grounds he likely was innocent. Additional reason: Arridy was mentally disabled, with an IQ of 46.

[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else. In addition, it would be unconstitutional today to impose the death penalty on anyone as intellectually disabled as Arridy.

Arridy spent 18 months on death row, always smiling and always playing with a toy train. He requested just ice cream for his final three meals and stepped into the gas chamber still grinning like a little boy.

[More...]

Former House Speaker Tom DeLay was sentenced today to three years in state prison for his conviction on money laundering charges.

Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money laundering charge but allowed DeLay to accept 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.

The judge granted his request to be freed on bail after he is booked at the county jail. At sentencing, DeLay told the judge he was innocent and the charges were politically motivated.

"I can't be remorseful for something I don't think I did," DeLay said.

The appeal will take months, if not years.

Mahablog links to Michelle Malkin whining about "criminalizing conservatism." I'm not sure what Malkin is talking about, but if I were a conservative, I would not want Malkin leading the charge on this issue. Here's one reason why:

Right now, [Michelle Malkin] is happily wrapped in one of her typical controversies: a crew of students at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater, protested some military recruiters, and Malkin got hold of a press release with their personal contact information -- a poorly conceived inclusion on the students' part, but then, these are undergraduates, not trained media flacks. Rather than calling and speaking to them herself, which is what members of the press are supposed to use such releases for, Malkin published their personal information on her website, prompting her hordes of orcish mouth-breathers to brandish their pitchforks and inundate the unsuspecting students with death threats [. . .] When the students frantically called on Malkin to remove their numbers, she posted their contact information again.

(Emphasis supplied.) If I was a conservative, I would not be choosing Malkin as my lead advocate on this issue right now.

Speaking for me only

Good piece from Gail Collins:

Today, the amazing thing about the reaction to the Giffords shooting is that virtually all the discussion about how to prevent a recurrence has been focusing on improving the tone of our political discourse. That would certainly be great. But you do not hear much about the fact that Jared Loughner came to Giffords’s sweet gathering with a semiautomatic weapon that he was able to buy legally because the law restricting their sale expired in 2004 and Congress did not have the guts to face up to the National Rifle Association and extend it.

Read the whole thing, which includes this story -- "In 2009, Gabrielle Giffords was holding a “Congress on Your Corner” meeting at a Safeway supermarket in her district when a protester, who was waving a sign that said “Don’t Tread on Me,” waved a little too strenuously. The pistol he was carrying under his armpit fell out of his holster."

Talk Left almost certainly disagrees with the views expressed in this post, thus I am speaking for me only.

Open thread.

Yglesias does a Oh the places you'll go post. Here's where I've been in the US, chronologically - Louisiana - Florida - DC - Virginia - Alabama - Massachusetts - Rhode Island - Connecticut - New York - New Hampshire - New Jersey - Maine - Illinois - Arizona - Colorado - California - Pennsylvania - Missouri - Georgia - Tennessee - North Carolina - South Carolina - Mississippi - Kentucky - Puerto Rico - Washington - Indiana - Ohio - West Virginia - Delaware. Obviously, I went to these states more than once and New York, Florida and Puerto Rico are places I am present almost every month.

Where do you want to go in the United States?

First, let me disclose my bias - a Florida Gator fan, I am firmly convinced that not only is the SEC the best football conference year after year, but that it is not even very close. Soooo, I'm picking Auburn tonight right? No. I think that Oregon is going to win the game easily and that this is one of the best betting propositions in some time. Let's look at the numbers - Auburn is a 1.5 point favorite (since I decided on Oregon, I shopped for the best line and have Oregon (+3) (15 units)). My view is that Jeff Sagarin has the most accurate computer rating system. Under the Sagarin system, Oregon is 7 points better than Auburn. More . .

Via rikyrah:

We have post after post on the Arizona shootings this weekend. Does anyone have anything else to talk about?

If you're watching TV, check out the premiere of Shameless on Showtime. (Free this weekend to Comcast subscribers -- even those who don't pay for Showtime.) It's really good.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Jared Loughner just caught the biggest break of his life. CNN reports the federal court says former Spokane federal defender (also National Capital Resource Counsel and Federal Community Defender in San Diego), Judy Clarke has been appointed to represent him. (Judy is now in private practice in San Diego.)Via CNN:

Veteran federal public defender Judy Clarke, who has experience in several high-profile cases including those of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, was appointed to defend suspect Jared Lee Loughner, a federal judicial source said.

They don't make defense lawyers any better than Judy. You may remember her from the Susan Smith case in South Carolina, where Smith was charged with drowning her two sons; or the Unabomber case, or the case of Eric Rudolf. Thanks to Judy (and those who helped her), all avoided the death penalty. She also worked on the Zacarias Moussaoui defense team for a while. The AP called her "a one woman dream team."

Judy is a past-President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), where she's affectionately called "Saint Judy" -- and a friend. She is both a great person and a great lawyer. [More...]

Here's the federal complaint filed against Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner. An Indictment will be returned within 30 days. The U.S. Attorney's Press Release is here.

Loughner is charged with the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing a federal officer or employee, and two counts of attempted murder of a federal officer or employee. The victims in counts 2 though 5 are Judge John Roll and Gifford staffers, Gabriel Zimmerman, Pamela Simon and Ron Barber.

As to Judge Roll being at the event in his official capacity, the Affidavit in support of the Complaint states: [More...]

There will undoubtedly be calls for stricter gun control laws as a result of yesterday's shootings in Arizona. We don't need more laws.

Guns did not cause the rage, desperation or mental illness that led the Arizona shooter to kill people. It doesn't take a newsflash to know that people who feel persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others may resort to violence. And all the gun laws in the world won't stop the next person bent on doing the same thing

There's no question that one lone wolf can cause a lot of damage, but putting more resources into prevention, particularly recognizing and treating mental health issues, and funding re-entry programs instead of building more prisons, are far better solutions than putting more laws on the books, ramping up our already massive security programs and increasing the use of privacy-intrusive investigative techniques. [More...]

While Jared Lee Loughner's mental stability is reported to be in question, there are limits to the alleged insanity. Unlike many a "smart" suspect, Loughner has invoked his right to remain silent:

Mr. Loughner, who was in custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday night, refused to cooperate with investigators and had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, the sheriff’s office said.

Which reminds me, Loughner is merely a suspect, and indeed, to my knowledge, has not been charged. He deserves the presumption of innocence and has a right to such presumption in a court of law.

Speaking for me only