Judge enters not guilty plea for Loughner

TUCSON, March 9 (UPI) -- A judge Wednesday entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Jared Loughner to 49 federal charges stemming from a shooting massacre in Tucson.

Loughner, 22, was led into the Tucson courtroom of U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns shortly after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in belly chains and wearing a khaki prison uniform, The Arizona Republic reported.

When Burns asked the detainee if his name was Jared Lee Loughner, he replied in a sing-song voice it was and his defense attorney requested the judge to enter a plea on his behalf.

Prosecutors also petitioned Burns to consider their request that Loughner provide handwriting samples to compare with documents seized from his home, the Arizona Daily Star said.

Other matters before the judge included a request by the defense to ban the release of Loughner's prison records and a request by the prosecution to have him undergo a psychiatric examination.

Loughner was being arraigned on 49 federal charges, including murder and attempted murder, in the Jan. 8 shooting spree that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

Loughner was indicted by a grand jury Friday for the slaying of U.S. District Judge John Roll and Giffords aide Gabriel Zimmerman, as well as the killings of four other people who were at Giffords' community event outside a Tucson supermarket.

He pleaded not guilty to earlier charges he tried to assassinate Giffords and kill two of her other aides.

Prosecutors asked Burns Monday night to order Loughner to be moved to a medical prison from Phoenix's medium-security Federal Correctional Institution to undergo extensive examination before standing trial.

"The defendant's online postings are indicative of an individual who may have mental issues," prosecutors said.

They described in court papers a photograph posted on his former Myspace account featuring what appeared to be a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun, the same kind used in the Tucson shooting, on top of a U.S. history book, which was next to an image of the White House and faces of U.S. presidents.

They described a video Loughner allegedly posted on YouTube in which he burns an American flag in an outdoor, park-like area while masked and hooded and wearing garbage bags on his lower body. The video -- titled "America: Your Last Memory in a Terrorist Country!" -- features the song "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor!" by the alternative metal band Drowning Pool, a United Press International review of the video indicated.

Loughner's lawyers acknowledged their client may have "mental impairments," but said they were "in the very preliminary stages of their investigation to determine the nature, severity and consequences" of those impairments "and their relevance to legal claims," a court paper stated.

Lead defense attorney Judy Clarke asked Burns for a 16-month delay because "no lawyer or team of lawyers could be ready to defend Mr. Loughner by September 2011 -- no matter how hard they work between now and then."