On the morning of Jan. 8, John Marino, a Tucson cab driver, pulled into the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store to pick up his first passenger of the day.

“Do you remember everyone you pick up?” the passenger asked, according to Marino’s interview with The New York Times.

“Vaguely,” Marino responded to the man, who would soon become the perpetrator of an infamous act that few will forget.

At 10:10 a.m., witnesses reported that a disheveled looking man began firing into a crowd of citizens gathered for a “Congress on Your Corner” event lead by Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, according to the Arizona Central News.

Within minutes, five were killed, including U.S. Federal Judge, John Roll. Nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green died later while hospitalized. Among the 14 injured was Congresswoman Giffords, who suffered a critical gunshot wound to the head, according to The Central News.

“She was shot one time in the head … ” said Dr. Peter Rhee at University Medical Center in Tucson in a press report for the Arizona Republic.

Now, two weeks removed from this ordeal, one suspect, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of homicide, according to the Associated Press.

Over the days following the attacks, the nation witnessed an outpouring of grief and shock. Across the board, commentators and pundits attempted to place blame on the volatile political scene or the flawed mental healthcare system as negative influences on the shooter.

“It is fair to say — in today’s political climate, and given today’s political rhetoric — that many have contributed to the building levels of vitriol in our political discourse that have surely created an atmosphere in which this event transpired,” said a statement issued by the National Jewish Democratic Council on their website.

Others rejected the idea that outside influences had any real impact on Loughner’s actions.

“In some ways, it’s irrelevant whether the broader toxins in the culture are what led the shooter to do what he did,” said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to the Arizona Central News. “Those toxins are out there,”

A look into Loughner’s past reveals only one common theme as an indicator of what was to come: an obsession with antigovernment conspiracy theories.

“He was all about less government and less America,” said Loughner’s high-school friend Brianna Castle to The New York Times. “He thought it was full of conspiracies and that the government censored the Internet and banned certain books from being read by us.”

As a student at Pima Community College, Loughner’s often-erratic behavior drew the attention of administrators.

At one point, Loughner claimed a professor — who gave him half-credit on a late assignment — threatened his constitutional rights.

After viewing a video made by Loughner entitled “Pima Community College School-Genocide,” the school decided to suspend Loughner until he could submit documentation that he was not a threat, according to The Arizona Republic.

That certification failed to appear before it was too late.

As questions linger about Loughner’s mental health, the Arizona Republic reports that the state has recently modified its law so that defendants can no longer be found “not guilty” on an insanity defense. Rather, they can be found “guilty but insane,” a proxy means of keeping those deemed insane in court, but who later regain their sanity, from being released into the general population.

“Victim’s families usually want to see the perpetrator punished, regardless of the reasons for committing the acts of violence,” said Part-time Lecturer of Psychology Leslie Armeniox, discussing whether mental health status will impact Loughner’s sentencing.

The hearings began on Jan. 17, according to the Associated Press.

“Many people do not realize that a person in a psychotic state probably does not know right from wrong, cannot conceive of how their actions will affect others, and cannot control their behavior,” said Armeniox. “The examiners in this case will have to establish (to obtain a verdict of guilty but insane) whether the act was a result of a mental disease or defect and … therefore (Loughner) could not appreciate the wrongfulness of the act, or could not control his behavior because of delusions.”

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that Gabrielle Giffords has been moved to a hospital in Texas to begin intensive rehabilitation care.

Loughner’s fate seems to be in a precarious balance. His defense attorney, Judy Clarke, has not responded to questions of whether or not Loughner will seek an insanity defense.

A recent Law.com interview with Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz hints at the possibility of Loughner receiving the death penalty. Dershowitz claims that,

“The prosecution typically seeks the maximum punishment in a case like this.”