PHOENIX — An appeals court Thursday rejected a request to halt a mental-competency exam for the suspect in the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that killed six people in Tucson and return him to Arizona from the federal medical facility in Missouri where he is undergoing the test.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did, however, temporarily put on hold a lower court’s order requiring that video recordings of Jared Lee Loughner’s exam be given to lawyers on both sides. The exam will be videotaped but will be set aside as lawyers litigate that issue.
That ruling came after the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns, declined a request by Loughner’s lawyers to reconsider his order that sent Loughner, 22, to a federal facility in Springfield, Mo. The lawyers said they were told Thursday by a psychologist at the facility that their client’s exam had already begun. The Associated Press
