PHOENIX (AP) -- A federal appeals court has imposed a partial stay on a lower-court judge's order to distribute the videotaped psychological evaluations of the Tucson shooting rampage suspect to prosecutors.
Jared Lee Loughner is undergoing a mental competency exam at a federal medical facility in Missouri. He's pleaded not guilty to 49 federal charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shootings that killed six people and wounded 13, including Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Loughner's lawyers say providing prosecutors with the recordings would violate their client's right to a fair trial.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a temporary stay late Friday, but only to the extent that the videotapes of all evaluations should be withheld from all attorneys until the judges have a chance to review the matter.
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