captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: the tucson gunman accused of killing six and wounding 13 people, including former congresswoman gabrielle giffords last year, will spend his life in prison. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we have the latest on jared lee loughner's appearance in court today, and how he convinced a judge he was now competent to plead guilty. >> woodruff: then we follow the campaign money trail, who's raised what and from whom, and what are the presidential candidates spending it on? >> brown: ray suarez begins a special series about the impact of natural gas and oil surpluses

in america. tonight he's in a north dakota town trying to cope with its sudden prosperity. >> woodruff: track and field heats up at the london olympics as gymnastics winds down. we get the latest from christine brennan of "u.s.a. today." >> brown: and we remember robert hughes and judith crist, two legendary critics of the arts whose deaths remind us of another era. >> warner: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects . >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: there won't be a trial for the man who shot up a political event for an arizona congresswoman last year. instead, the gunman pleaded guilty today, guaranteeing he'll spend his life behind bars.

psychiatrists medicated him for success friendna. today, the judge declared him mentally competent clearing him to plead guilty to 19 charges. he will be sentenced to life in prison sparing him the death

penalty. in a statement issued before the judge's ruling giffords and her husband retired astronaut mark kelly welcomed the plea bargain and said avoiding a trial will allow us and the southern arizona community to continue with our recovery. giffords was critically wounded in head during the shooting and made progress. in an emotional appearance on the floor of the house of representatives the three-term democrat formally resigned her seat. prosecutors and officials held a news conference outside the federal courthouse in tucson. here is some of what they had to say. >> well, no conclusions of this criminal prosecution will ever bring full closure to the victims of this crime or to their families. we hope that what we have accomplished today will be a positive step forward in the progress of healing and recovery from the tremendous losses that they have suffered.

>> but today justice was done. the change of his plea, jared lee loughner will spend the remainder of his life in prison. he will never be able to harm the tucson community or any other community ever again. >> and joining us is laurie levinson, professor of law at loyola law school. help us understand the issue before the judge. loughner's lawyers had to convince the judge that he was competent enough to enter a plea. what does that mean? >> it means he understood the charges against him and able to cooperate and be involved with his lawyer and the proceedings. so that he knew that when he pled guilty, that really meant that he would spend the rest of his life in prison. >> and you followed this case. this was a man before the same judge and was in very clearly in different circumstances in past appearances.

>> oh, absolutely. this judge has seen jared lee loughner in all sorts of conditions. he is the judge who ordered the medication to be given and the defense did not want that. they were happy to have jared loughner be in the prison hospital indefinitely. but the judge forced the medication and made him competent and meant we could have a resolution to the case. >> so still to try to follow this here, when we use that word "competent" we mean competent now different issue from whether he was competent or sane at the time of the act, correct? >> very, very different. two different time-frames. when we take a look at the time of the act we talk about sanity or insanity. did he understand what he was doing? did he know the consequences of his act? and he might have. but then there is the issue once he is brought to court does he understand the proceedings and the consequences can he participate in his defense? and that is where you have to have the experts come in like

they did today and say, you know, with the medication, he is a changed person. he may have schizophrenia but it's under control and he understands what is happening. >> the lawyers could have opted for an insanity defense? couldn't they have? what is the calculation for them in trying to figure out the right approach? >> big risk. and i think that there was something in on this plea bargain. the defense understood that he might get the death penalty with the claim of insanity and that is because even though he was mentally ill, he seemed to understand what he was doing and wanted to do it. and the legal test for insanity is a difficult test particularly in the jurisdiction. so i think the defense said better to take the deal, spend his life in prison than risk the death penalty and the prosecutors on the other hand, said if we go for the death penalty, there's no certainty that a jury will give it to him. some might say he is mentally ill and will give him a break.

>> we heard some of the prosecutors outside the courtroom. you are saying, i guess in any plea there is clearly both sides are making calculations and thinking they are coming ahead. in this case, on the federal prosecutors thought better to take this plea and settle it right now. >> i think that is what the federal prosecutors thought and i think they thought that in particular it would have been so much to put the victims and the victims' families through for this type of trial with no certainty at the end. at least now they know that jared lee loughner will never get out of prison. and they could do that without hearing all the episode of the crime again and that hoping that perhaps the jury would agree with the death penalty. and don't forget, maybe not all the victim family wanted the death penalty. >> how did they convince or what is required for convincing the judge of this competence question? it's not only a question of saying that he is fit for a trial but then also saying fit

for a trial but we are not going to go for the trial we are going to go for the plea. they have expert witnesses, does the judge have to talk to loughner himself and get personal testimony? >> well, the plea bargain process and the plea that is given has the judge interacting with the defendant and with his lawyers. what i understand happened today, is that the judge heard from an expert who said i know jared lee loughner i know how this medication is working on him and i see him in the courtroom today. and he is competent. he understands what is going on. and after the expert said that, the judge, himself, took the guilty plea which means that jared lee loughner had to acknowledge what he was pleading to, what rights he was giving up and the judge could see with his own eyes and the demeanor in fact this is a person who was competent. >> and we also noted that the congress woman and her husband and other victims were accepting of this. they said so before it was

formalized. does that play any role, do you think, for the judge in his decision? >> i think that is huge. you know, the judge did not have to accept this plea bargain. and i think the judge had on his mind how will the victims react? when you had a congress woman giffords and the other family members there saying we agree with this resolution it makes it a lot easier on the judge to say this is a just result. how unusual is something like this to have this change of plea and when it is you know, a national -- of national attention, how unusual is a case like this? >> it's unusual, but it's not unprecedented. and some of your viewers might remember the ted kaczynski case where he also had mental problems he took over his own defense. he wanted toáñk sometimes things happen. what is unusual here is the nature of the tragedy and how much the nation was watching

this case. >> all right. thank you to too so much. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour, fundraising surges in the race for the white house; so does energy production in north dakota; cristine brennan from the olympics in london; and judith crist, robert hughes, and the influence of critics. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: investigators in wisconsin worked today to gain greater insight into the gunman who killed six people sunday at a sikh temple. three others who were wounded in the attack remained in critical condition. the killer has been identified as 40-year-old wade michael page, who was shot dead by police. he had ties to white supremacist groups, but investigators said they have not yet pinned down a motive for the attack. the leader of syria's embattled regime was seen publicly today, a rarity amid the growing civil war that's engulfed the country. we have a report narrated by inigo gilmore of independent television news. appearing on state television, syria's president bashar al-assad emerged from the

shadows today. it was his first public appearance in two weeks, here turning out to meet iran's security chief a loyal ally in a time of need. he referred to iran's relationship with syria as the access of resistance not easily broken. but this was not just a solidarity visit to syria's beleaguered leader. he was also in syria to discuss the pressing issue of the fate of more than 40 iranian hostages, seized by syrian rebels on sunday. the rebel fightners the video insist their hostages are members of iran's elite revolutionary guard sent to fight with assad's forces. iran says the men are pilgrims. the kidnapping crisis is another sign of a widening war in syria with battles intensifying across the country, including aleppo.

and civilians are caught in the middle. in an incident that stirred outrage, nine members of one family were killed when a fighter jet missed its target. they tried to hit a key rebel command post next door to where the family was sheltering. young and old, thousands remain trapped in syria's biggest city as assad's forces attempt to encircle the rebels who are running low on ammunition. with battles raging across aleppo and food in short supply, civilians continue to flee trying to get ahead of an anticipated onslaught by regime forces which many now fear is imminent. >> sreenivasan: authorities in turkey reported today that more than 1,300 syrians crossed from aleppo to the turkish side of the border in the last 24 hours. three men gunned down at least

19 people at a church in nigeria last night. it was the latest sign that muslim-christian violence is spreading in the african nation. the attack came in the central part of the country. police said the gunmen opened fire with kalashnikov assault rifles. there was no immediate claim for responsibility, but suspicion fell on boko haram. the radical islamic sect is blamed for more than 660 killings this year alone. in the philippines, half of the capital city, manila, was submerged overnight in the worst flooding to hit the area since 2009. major dams and rivers overflowed, leaving thousands of people stranded on rooftops today, waiting for rescue. the water also triggered a landslide that killed at least nine people. the flooding followed monsoon rains that soaked the northern philippines, just days after a typhoon struck the region. nasa today unveiled the first color images beamed back from mars by the newly arrived "curiosity." one photo shows the red planet's rocky terrain and, in th di e , anhenothimrt distance, the northern rim of gale crater, where the rover landed.

in another picture-- taken moments before landing-- swirls of dust are being kicked up by "curiosity's" approach. the rover landed late sunday night. it won't take its first test drive for another couple of weeks. strong corporate earnings helped push wall street higher today. the dow jones industrial average gained 51 points to close at 13,168. the nasdaq rose nearly 26 points to close just short of 3016, the first time it's been above 3000 since may. the standard and poor's 500 also had a good day, finishing above 1400 for the first time in three months. composer and conductor marvin hamlisch has died. he passed away monday in los angeles after a brief illness. hamlisch won every major entertainment award during his career, including three academy awards, four emmys, four grammys, a tony, and three golden globes. his best-known soundtracks for film included "the entertainer" from "the sting," in 1973, and "the way we were," from the movie of the same name, the following year. he also composed the music for the broadway smash "a chorus line." here he is playing "one,

singular sensation" from that show at a state department holiday reception in 2010. [♪] [applause] >> sreenivasan: marvin hamlisch was 68 years old. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: we are three months away from election day, and the political money race is heating up. mitt romney's presidential campaign announced yesterday that, along with the republican national committee and state party efforts, it raised $101 million in the month of july.

the republicans had nearly $186 million in the bank as of july 31. president obama's reelection campaign said it raised more than $75 million in july, but did not disclose how much cash it has on hand. that's the third month in a row the romney team has outraised the president's. however, between january and june, mr. obama outspent his g.o.p. rival, $400 million to $131 million. to help sort through what all the numbers mean, we are joined by rick davis, who served as republican john mccain's national campaign manager in 2000 and again in 2008. he is now chief operating officer at pegasus capital advisors. and mo elleithee, a partner at hilltop public solutions, a d.c.-based political consulting firm. he worked on hillary clinton's 2008 presidential bid.

we thank you both. good to see both of you. mo, let me start with you, why is the president having a harder time this year raising money? in 2008 he raised over $750 million. >> well, i don't think he is having a hard time raising money. he is raising a significant amount of money but there's no question that the new rules of the game, i think, are absolutely benefiting the republicans. yes, mitt romney's outraising himgo4 and but when you are looking at the amount that the obama campaign versus the romney campaign are raising, they are both going to be very competitive. neither one of the guys is going to run out of money. what really stacks the deck against the president are the super packs all the outside money coming into the system and coming into the game. and that should put a little bit of fear and panic into democrats. >> rick davis, how fearful and panicked should the democrats be? >> well, certainly the tone has changed a lot from early remarks by thfr obama campaign how they were going to raise a billion

dollars and be the first campaign in history to cross that huge mark. and certainly, i never thought that was any great shakes. i mean, obama outraisedwññuj in 2008 by a significant margin. and spent almost three to one, in some states 4 to one against us in television. this is quite a different table and i think that it's an indication of problems within the obama electorate. raising money is some indication of your level of support out in the country. and the fact that obama is not going to have an advantage for fundraising is a first-time since 2011 that he hasn't outspent his opponent. >> mo what about that? who is and who isn't giving to the obama campaign and to the romney campaign? do we have a sense of the portrait of who is writing checks this year? >> yeah, one area that i would differ from rick, is or actually agree with him, is that giving

does indicate a certain amount of support. and when you look at the small grassroots donations that the obama campaign is receiving, there's no question. a significant amount of his money is coming from small donors. the majority of his donors are people that have given $200 or less. and that cannot be said about the republican party and i read an astonishing figure on the way here, about like or 80-some percent of all the money that has been given in this election campaign is coming from just a very, very, very small group of people. that says a lot about the shifting paradigm of campaign fundraising. >> and rick davis it is a fact that we hear a lot about the fat cats to use the term millionaires and billionaires giving money. governor romney seems to be benefiting from those big checks going to the super pacts,

doesn't he? >> aligning the two campaigns fundraising the thing you have to remember is barack obama raised more fat cat money per cap ta than mitt mutt has. barack obama raised more money than mitt romney has. you can make comparisons but when you look at how many fat cats have donated to anyone campaign barack obama owns that title. and the fact that you have outside spending is not something new. it's been happening really over the last 20 years. and the facts are that barack obama in 2008 had an opportunity to fall under the campaign finance rules. he actually had an agreement with john mccain to do so and broke his agreement when he realized i cançr this time than i ever thought wildly possible. if anybody is undermining the campaign finance system or individual it's probably barack

obama. so it's funny now that he would start complaining about it. he protests too much. >> you want to respond to that? eah there'

i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brow we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway.

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