Mark Kelly: Loughner's Sentencing 'Not Exactly Closure, But It Is Resolution' - East Idaho News
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Mark Kelly: Loughner’s Sentencing ‘Not Exactly Closure, But It Is Resolution’

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ABC N 11912 MarkKellyJPG?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1352457031767ABC News(NEW YORK) — Ex-astronaut Mark Kelly spoke to ABC’s Diane Sawyer Thursday night about what it was like to be in the courtroom with his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, as Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced.

Loughner, 24, went on a shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8, 2011, killing six people and wounding 13 others, including Giffords, who was forced to retire due to the severity of her injuries.  

On Thursday, he was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms plus 140 years, without parole.  Loughner pleaded guilty in a deal that allowed him to avoid the possibility of a death sentence.

Kelly said on World News with Diane Sawyer that he and Giffords now had “some sense of resolution.  Not exactly closure, but it is resolution.”

Loughner, he said, was “a little defiant in the way looking at us and looking at Gabby.  I got the sense he was trying to intimidate us, especially my wife.”

While her husband addressed the court on her behalf, Giffords stared into Loughner’s eyes.

”She stared into his eyes the entire time.  I saw a person [Loughner] who certainly has major mental illness, but who knew where he was and why he was there,” Kelly said.

Loughner, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the shooting, is under orders to forcibly receive anti-psychotic medication.  He is currently being held at a prison medical facility in Missouri.

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