Loughner must provide handwriting samples

From the Arizona Republican:

Prosecutors have asked a U.S. District Court judge to make Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner turn over handwriting samples to compare with notes found scrawled in his home.

Loughner has been charged in federal court with wounding three people, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, during a Tucson shooting spree on Jan. 8.

Six died and 13 were wounded.

More charges, including murder, are expected against Loughner both in federal court and in Pima County Superior Court.

In a motion filed Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney for Arizona Mary Sue Feldmeier asked Judge Larry A. Burns to compel Loughner to provide the samples, which a handwriting expert could then evaluate to see whether they match writings from Loughner’s home.

Investigators have described finding “two significant papers that had some hand-scrawled comments.”

Among the words and phrases written on those papers were “die, bitch,” “die cops,” “I planned ahead,” “My assassination,” and “Giffords.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a criminal defendant can be required to provide a handwriting sample, even in the absence of counsel, and no violation of the Fifth or Sixth Amendment occurs:

Supreme Court of the United States
Jesse James GILBERT, Petitioner,
v.
STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

No. 223.
Argued Feb. 15 and 16, 1967.
Decided June 12, 1967.

Prosecution for armed robbery and murder. The Superior Court, Los Angeles County, rendered judgment, and defendant appealed. The California Supreme Court, 63 Cal.2d 690, 47 Cal.Rptr. 909, 408 P.2d 365, affirmed in part and reversed in part, and defendant obtained certiorari. The Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Brennan, held that the taking of a handwriting exemplar in absence of counsel did not deny Fifth or Sixth Amendment rights....