The Gabby Giffords shooter, Jared Loughner, did a plea deal for life in prison on the federal charges against him. He had suffered from schizophrenia, but not enough to be deemed insane; drug treatment made him coherent enough to stand trial and make a plea bargain.
Given his problems, making a death penalty rap stick would be an iffy proposition given the trend towards commuting the sentences of folks with severe mental illness. Sparing the US taxpayers two teams of lawyers for a decade fighting over a trip to Jack the Dripper makes fiscal sense and does bring closure...
...well, not quite. Arizona could still press capital charges if they want to take a whack at the Roberts Court (or whoever gets the final call around 2025 by the time the appeals got done; Roberts should still be there, but half the current court could turn over by then) letting them execute Loughner. A hang-'em-high DA might want to make that call, even if it would be rather costly for the state to try.
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