Jared Loughner, who faces the death penalty, appeared with his head shaven, amid tight security around the federal court in the Arizona state capital Phoenix.

The suspected man who is accused of trying to kill a congresswoman in Arizona shooting which left six people killed, appeared in a court Monday without saying anything that shed light on his motive.

Jared Loughner, who faces the death penalty, appeared with his head shaven, amid tight security around the federal court in the Arizona state capital Phoenix.
Wearing a brown prison jumpsuit for the less than 15 minute hearing, 22-year-old Loughner appeared to follow proceedings closely, but said little beyond answering "Yes" to basic questions from judge Michael Anderson.
The judge agreed to his request to have Judy Clarke as his attorney.

No plea of guilty or not guilty was entered during the hearing and a preliminary court appearance was scheduled for January 24.

Democratic lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was shot through the head at point-blank range before the gunman sprayed a crowd of constituents with bullets, a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge were among six who died.
Doctors said Giffords was still responding to basic commands such as squeezing medics' fingers, fueling growing hope for her recovery, though she remains in a critical condition.

Authorities said Loughner, a troubled young man booted out of a community college last year, fired a full clip of 31 shots.
He was reloading another clip into his 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol when bystanders, including a 74-year-old retired colonel whose head had just been grazed by a bullet, brought him to the ground.

A search of Loughner's home on Saturday unearthed a trove of evidence in a safe, according to the criminal complaint, including a letter from Giffords thanking him for attending one of her earlier public meetings, in August 2007.
Investigators also found an envelope with the hand-written notes, "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and "Giffords," the affidavit said.

Officials declined to assess Loughner's motives or mental state. He wrote a stream of barely coherent postings on the Internet that showed an interest in developing a new currency and criticism of "illiterate" fellow residents.
Those who knew him at Pima Community College last spring described a pattern of strange behavior that led many to wonder if he was on drugs.