Defending those accused of unthinkable crimes - Boston Globe
Just before 10 a. m. on Saturday, January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner got out of a taxi at a Safeway supermarket north of Tucson. Six people were killed, including a federal judge, a Giffords aide, and 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green. Loughner wounded more than a dozen others before bystanders tackled him. The attack, one in a string of mass shootings around the country, elicited shock. “If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today,” President Obama told a tearful nation a few days later. The 22-year-old Loughner was a local kid. Two days after the shooting, a judge approved Judy Clarke as one of Loughner’s attorneys. Clarke, a San Diego-based lawyer widely considered one of the nation’s top criminal defenders, spent almost two years at Loughner’s side, guiding him through hearings, investigations into his mental competency, and preparations for a possible trial. Loughner didn’t make it easy. Reuben Camper Cahn, a federal defender who worked alongside Clarke, said Loughner’s mental illness was among the most severe he’s seen in more than 25 years of practice. Clarke was in Loughner’s corner, but Loughner lunged at her on at least one occasion. And yet Clarke and her team stuck by. Source: www.bostonglobe.com
