Judge OKs second death penalty expert for Tsarnaev defense

Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev added a second death penalty expert to his defense team today, less than a month after federal prosecutors announced they would seek execution if he is convicted in the deadly attacks, according to court papers.

U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. allowed the appointment of David A. Bruck, an attorney with extensive experience in death penalty cases — including seven that appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court. Bruck will join Judy Clarke, a death penalty expert who won life sentences for several high-profile mass killers, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Tucson, Ariz., mass shooter Jared Loughner.

Tsarnaev’s attorneys previously had a request to appoint Bruck denied without prejudice. In their most recent request “the defendant has made a satisfactory showing that the appointment of Mr. Buck is ‘necessary for adequate representation,’” according to O’Toole’s order.

The motion prompting O’Toole’s order was sealed.

Tsarnaev, 20, is accused of killing three and wounding more than 260 in the April 15 attack, then murdering a Massachusetts Institute of Technology cop later in a desperate bid to escape capture.

Source: AP, Feb. 21, 2014

Boston Marathon bombing suspect lawyers want trial in September 2015

Dzkokhar Tsarnaev

BOSTON -- The trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzkokhar Tsarnaev is expected to last three months, plus another six weeks if he is convicted and jurors have to decide whether he should be put to death, prosecutors said Monday.

The trial estimate was included in a joint status report filed in court Monday by federal prosecutors and Tsarnaev's lawyers ahead of a Wednesday hearing.

In the report, defense lawyers say they want a trial date no earlier than September 2015. Prosecutors did not include a request for a trial date, but they said during a court hearing in November that they hoped to have the trial this fall.

Tsarnaev, 20, has pleaded not guilty in the attack last April that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. Authorities say he and his older brother, Tamerlan, built and planted two pressure cooker bombs near the marathon finish line. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a shootout with police during an escape attempt four days after the marathon.

The report says Dzkokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers have not yet had an opportunity to review numerous pieces of physical evidence, including nearly 2,000 items that are still being analyzed by the FBI and items kept at additional locations.

The defense proposed a schedule for filing certain requests, including: motions to suppress evidence, by July 28; motions challenging the death penalty, by Nov. 17; and a motion to change the location of the trial, by Jan. 19. Prosecutors asked for earlier deadlines for those motions.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder authorized prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Tsarnaev last month.

Source: The Associated Press, Feb. 11, 2014

Boston Marathon bombings: The death penalty still isn't appropriate

Boston Marathon finish line
moments before the explosions

Despite the emotional devastation, the government is wrong to seek that punishment in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

It was a horrendous attack. 2 bombs left in backpacks near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon exploded on April 15, killing 3 people and injuring an astounding 264 others - many of whom, including children, lost limbs and suffered other life-altering wounds.

But should our emotional response to that act of terrorism blind us to the appropriateness of the criminal penalty to be sought? No.

The Justice Department filed papers Thursday in federal court in Boston saying that it intends to seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother of the pair suspected of planting the bombs. The filing cites Tsarnaev's alleged use of a weapon of mass destruction and his "reckless disregard for human life," as well as the premeditation of the act. The papers also mention Tsarnaev's alleged betrayal of the country that granted him citizenship and his lack of remorse. U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. added that the decision to seek the death penalty was based on the "nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm."

Given the magnitude of the crime, it is understandable that the victims - from the families of those killed and maimed, to the city of Boston, to, by extension, the nation - feel the urge for revenge. This page has long opposed the death penalty, yet we also found ourselves caught up in the emotions surrounding Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, and supported his death sentence - a stance we have since regretted.

That tumbling to the emotion of the moment, though, points up one of the primary roles of the judicial system: to act as a buffer between victims' justifiable thirst for vengeance and the greater good of society. In our view, it is not the rightful responsibility of the state to act as executioner of its own citizens, no matter how heinous the crime, no matter how infamous the criminal and no matter how loudly people may call for it. Instead, society should put aside its visceral notions of revenge with a thoughtful examination of the morality, cost and effectiveness of capital punishment.

Cases like this test our strength as a mature democracy, and as a people who believe in justice. That's not to say convicted murderers and other perpetrators of egregious crimes shouldn't face severe punishment. Life without parole is the correct response in these extreme cases. It punishes the criminal while protecting society from future acts of violence.

As a nation that believes in justice, we should drop our embrace of the death penalty as a relic of the barbaric past.

Source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 3, 2014

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the Future of the Death Penalty on Trial

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

When accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is brought to trial later this year or early next, the life of the 20-year-old naturalized citizen won’t be the only thing at stake. In a very real way, the future of the death penalty—a barbaric relic of a bygone era abolished by more than two-thirds of the world’s nations—will also be on trial.  

Legally, the decision to pursue execution was made by Attorney General Eric Holder. At Holder’s instruction, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts filed a detailed eight-page Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty on Jan. 30. 

In the broadest sense, there are at least two reasons for Holder’s decision: First, the political backdrop of the continuing war on terror makes it imperative that the Obama administration appear strong in the face of danger.

Of course, there’s no explicit reference either to the president or the “war on terror” in the Notice of Intent. But the word “terrorism” appears in the document six times. The Notice recounts that Tsarnaev (who was born in Kyrgyzstan and whose family hails from Chechnya) “received asylum from the United States; obtained citizenship and enjoyed the freedoms of a United States citizen; and then betrayed his allegiance to the United States by killing and maiming people in the United States,” crimes the document characterizes as acts of “terrorism” rather than simply acts of murder, mayhem or aggravated assault. We are urged not only to condemn Tsarnaev but also to fear him.  

There is nothing particularly unusual about the politics of fear being invoked in debates about the death penalty or street crime, generally. The politics of fear have driven our per capita incarceration rates to the highest in the world and left the United States as one of the leaders in the number of annual executions, trailing in recent years only such stalwarts of freedom and democracy as China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.

The politics of fear have also made and broken political careers in this country, consigning 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to a humiliating defeat to George H.W. Bush after a Republican PAC ran a television attack ad about a weekend prison furlough Dukakis supposedly approved as governor of Massachusetts for convicted murderer Willie Horton. By contrast, the execution statistics racked up by George W. Bush while governor of Texas bolstered his tough-on-crime image and helped pave his way to the White House.

The capital case against Tsarnaev offers more of the same politics, except with foreign or foreign-born terrorists replacing marauding racial minorities like Horton, an African-American, as the fearsome malefactors.

Click here to read the full article

By Bill Blum, Truthdig, Feb. 3, 2014. Bill Blum is a former judge and death penalty defense attorney. He is the author of three legal thrillers published by Penguin/Putnam (“Prejudicial Error,” “The Last Appeal” and “The Face of Justice”) and is a contributing writer for California Lawyer magazine. His nonfiction work has appeared in such publications as Crawdaddy magazine, In These Times, The Nation, The Progressive, the ABA Journal, the Orange County Register, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and Los Angeles magazine.

Marathon bombing: US cites enormity of attack in seeking death penalty

The Boston Marathon finish line
moments before the explosions

The Department of Justice said Thursday that it will seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, citing the “heinous, cruel and depraved manner” of the attack that killed three people, injured more than 260, and sent a wave of shock and fear into the region.

Noting that Tsarnaev has shown no remorse, federal prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty because of his “betrayal of the United States’’ and his decision to target the Boston Marathon, “an iconic event that draws large crowds of men, women, and children to its final stretch, making it especially susceptible to the act and effects of terrorism.”

US Attorney General Eric Holder authorized federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment if Tsarnaev is convicted, saying, “The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision.”

The US attorney in Boston, Carmen M. Ortiz, whose office is prosecuting the case, said, “We support this decision, and the trial team is prepared to move forward with the prosecution.”

Massachusetts state courts do not permit capital punishment, but Tsarnaev could be sentenced to death because he faces the charges in a federal case.

Tsarnaev, now 20, faces 30 charges in a federal indictment in connection with the bombing that plunged the region into terror for five days, until his arrest after a police chase and firefight in Watertown. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during the confrontation in Watertown.

Krystle Campbell, 29; Lingzi Lu, 23; and Martin Richard, 8, died in the blasts. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also faces charges in the fatal shooting of MIT police Officer Sean Collier.

Of the 30 counts Tsarnaev faces, prosecutors say they will justify the death sentence for 17 of them by proving several necessary factors, including that the killings and injuries were intentional, that Tsarnaev willingly took part in the acts that resulted in death, and that he knew they could end in death.

Source: The Boston Globe, Feb 1, 2014

Boston Police Commissioner: Pursuing death penalty for Tsarnaev is 'appropriate'

The U.S. government will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombings.

The Boston Marathon bombings killed 3 people and wounded more than 260 others.

17 of the 30 federal charges against Tsarnaev, including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, carry the possibility of the death penalty.

The 20-year-old has pleaded not guilty; no trial date has been set as of yet.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said he believe the pursuit of the penalty is appropriate, but he wants to remain focused on those who were injured and killed.

Evans said, 'It's not so much about the punishment, but it's about not forgetting those victims who still have to live with the events that happened on that tragic day."

He said it was likely a difficult decision, but an appropriate one due to the destruction and people hurt.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that he supports the decision made and will leave it up to the court process.

Source: NECN, Feb.1, 2014

For Boston bombing victims, death penalty decision a 'step forward'

Federal prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty against Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, arguing that he acted in "an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner" and lacks remorse.

The highly anticipated announcement Thursday means that when the case against Tsarnaev goes to trial, jurors will not only weigh whether he's guilty, but also whether he deserves to die.

For Liz Norden, it's 1 small step forward.

Her sons, JP and Paul, each lost a leg in the bombings, which killed 3 people and injured more than 250 at the April 15 race.

"I just am relieved that it's going forward in the right direction, 1 step forward in the recovery process, just that the option is out there on the table for the jurors, if that's the way it goes," she told CNN's The Situation Room.

Whenever the case goes to trial, Norden said she plans to attend every day.

"It's important to me. I'm trying to make sense of what happened that day. My boys went to watch a friend run the marathon, and one came home 46 days later. The other one, 32 days later. And their lives are forever changed," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "So I want to try and find out, somehow, to make some sense of how somebody could do this to all these innocent people."

Authorities allege Tsarnaev, a Chechnya-born American, and his brother Tamerlan planted 2 homemade bombs near the finish line of the marathon, then killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer 3 days later.

The attacks triggered the massive manhunt that led to Tsarnaev's capture. Police shot and killed Tamerlan Tsarnaev during the manhunt.

"The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement released by the Justice Department Thursday announcing that prosecutors would pursue the death penalty in the case.

After Holder made his decision, prosecutors filed a notice listing factors that they argue justify a death sentence in the case. Among them: The attack killed multiple people, involved substantial planning and premeditation and involved betrayal of the United States, prosecutors said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is charged with 30 federal counts stemming from the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The decision announced Thursday is no surprise, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said.

"This is a case, that, if you believe in the death penalty, seems to cry out for the death penalty, even though the defendant is only 19 years old, and potentially the junior partner to his late brother," Toobin said.

But that doesn't mean it's an open-and-shut case.

"One of the most interesting, difficult, strategic decisions the defense faces," Toobin said, is whether to push for a change of venue for the trial.

"Boston was obviously deeply traumatized by this incident. And the jury pool is Boston, if the case remains where it is. But Boston is also probably the most liberal city in the country. Death penalty opposition there is higher than anywhere else," Toobin said. "So does the defense go somewhere else, where people don't have the immediate association with the crime? Or do they go somewhere that might not oppose the death penalty in the same numbers?"

Massachusetts abolished the death penalty 3 decades ago, but prosecutors can seek the death penalty against Tsarnaev because federal law allows for the penalty in certain circumstances.

Despite Holder's decision to authorize the death penalty in the Tsarnaev case, prosecutors still could reach a plea deal for a lesser sentence with his attorneys, who include death penalty lawyer Judy Clarke.

Survivor speaks out

Federal officials weighed a number of factors before they announced their decision, including the opinions of victims of the deadly attack.

Survivors were asked to fill out a questionnaire about what they thought about the death penalty.

Marc Fucarile, who lost a leg in the bombing, said he has no doubt about where he stands: Tsarnaev deserves to die.

"I prefer the death penalty, because I prefer that people know that if you terrorize our country, you're going to be put to death," he told CNN affiliate WCVB. "And I strongly believe that's how it should be."

Life since the bombing hasn't been easy, he said.

"This is almost kind of too easy for him (Tsarnaev)," Fucarile told WCVB. "I still haven't walked for more than day in a prosthetic, and it's almost a year later. ... Life's good, you know. It's going to get better, but it's going to be a road, and it's going to be a long road for the rest of our lives."

In a statement Thursday, Gov. Deval Patrick urged the state's residents to stay strong.

"One way or another, based on the evidence, Tsarnaev will die in prison. In each milestone of the case -- today's announcement, the trial and every other significant step in the justice process -- the people hurt by the Marathon bombings and the rest of us so shocked by it will relive that tragedy," he said. "The best we can do is remind each other that we are a stronger Commonwealth than ever, and that nothing can break that spirit."

Tsarnaev's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reached before federal authorities announced their decision to seek the death penalty, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, the suspect's mother, did not comment on the specifics of the case.

"We are, you know, sickened about our child. ... We have nothing in our heads or in our hearts, so what should I say? We are just really sick," she told CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in a telephone interview.

"The only thing I want to say," she said, "is I want the whole world to hear that I love my son, my precious Dzhokhar. That's it."

Thousands of miles away, another mother -- Norden -- said her love for her own sons makes her want to learn more about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev during the trial, to try to understand why the deadly attacks occurred.

"I watch my sons, and it's sad. Their lives have changed, and they're OK with it. They've learned to accept it. But I can't," she said, her voice cracking. "You know, those are my kids, and they went to watch a marathon on the streets of Boston, and it shouldn't have happened."

Source: CNN, Feb. 1, 2014

Opinions Divided As Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for Boston Bombing Suspect

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he is convicted.

The announcement by federal prosecutors that they will seek the death penalty against the man accused in the Boston Marathon bombing came as no surprise to people who lost limbs or suffered other injuries in last year's attack.

But the victims and their families expressed a range of emotions about the decision Thursday to seek the execution of a 20-year-old man prosecutors accuse of committing one of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2011.

"It shows people that if you are going to terrorize our country, you are going to pay with your life," said Marc Fucarile, of Stoneham, who lost his right leg above the knee and suffered other severe injuries in the bombing.

But the grandmother of a 29-year-old woman killed in the attack said she isn't sure she supports the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, yet she fears that prison wouldn't be enough punishment for him.

"I don't know, because it's not going to bring her back," said Lillian Campbell, grandmother of Krystle Campbell. "I don't even like to discuss it because it makes me so upset. She was my granddaughter and I miss her so much.

Steve Byrne, who was at the finish line with friends and injured in the bombing, believes a death sentence would be too quick and easy for Tsarnaev.

"Obviously I do agree with it because death is death, but in my own eyes this is a 19 year old kid. He has a long healthy life ahead of him and personally I'd like to see him sit in prison for 50-60 plus years dealing with that," Byrne told New England Cable News.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision, announced Thursday, was widely expected. The twin blasts last April killed three people and wounded more than 260. Over 1/2 the 30 federal charges against Tsarnaev carry a possible death sentence, including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.

In a notice filed in court, federal prosecutors in Boston accused Tsarnaev, who moved to the U.S. from Russia about a decade ago, of betraying his adopted country by planning and carrying out a terrorist attack without remorse.

"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received asylum from the United States; obtained citizenship and enjoyed the freedoms of a United States citizen; and then betrayed his allegiance to the United States by killing and maiming people in the United States," read the notice filed by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.

In the notice, prosecutors listed factors they contend justify a sentence of death against Tsarnaev.

They cited allegations that he killed an MIT police officer as well as an 8-year-old boy, a "particularly vulnerable" victim because of his age. They also cited his alleged decision to target the Boston Marathon, "an iconic event that draws large crowds of men, women and children to its final stretch, making it especially susceptible to the act and effects of terrorism."

Tsarnaev's lawyers had no immediate comment.

In an interview with ABC, Tsarnaev's mother, Zubeidat, who lives in Russia, said: "How can I feel about this? I feel nothing. I can tell you one thing, that I love my son. I will always feel proud of him. And I keep loving him."

Prosecutors allege Tsarnaev, then 19, and his 26-year-old brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia, built and planted 2 pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the race to retaliate against the U.S. for its military actions in Muslim countries.

The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died in a shootout with police during a getaway attempt days after the bombing. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was wounded but escaped and was later captured hiding in a boat parked in a yard in a Boston suburb.

Authorities said he scrawled inside the boat such things as "The US Government is killing our innocent civilians" and "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."

Killed in the bombings were: Martin Richard, 8, of Boston; Krystle Campbell, 29, of Medford; and Lu Lingzi, 23, a Boston University graduate student from China. At least 16 others lost limbs.

Legal experts have said that the defense may try to save Tsarnaev's life by arguing that he fell under the influence of his brother.

"I think their focus ... will probably be to characterize it as coercion, intimidation and just his will being overborne by the older brother," said Gerry Leone, a former state and federal prosecutor in Boston who secured a conviction against shoe bomber Richard Reid.

If a jury convicts Tsarnaev, it will then hold a 2nd phase of the trial to determine his punishment.

Juries are asked to weigh aggravating factors cited by the government against mitigating factors raised by the defense in deciding whether a defendant should be executed. In Tsarnaev's case, mitigating factors could include his young age and claims that he played a secondary role in the crime.

Massachusetts abolished its own death penalty in 1984.

Celeste and Sydney Corcoran, a mother and daughter from Lowell who were both badly injured in the bombing, said of the Tsarnaevs in a statement on a Facebook support page: "They have taken enough from us & we trust in the US Legal System to do its job."

"If you're going to try and commit these types of acts, terrorist acts, then you're going to be held accountable and if it means the death penalty then it means the death penalty," added Peter Brown, whose nephews, Paul and JP Norden, lost their right legs when the 2nd bomb went off 100 yards from the finish line.

2 other federal death penalty cases have been brought in Massachusetts. A former veterans hospital nurse who killed 4 patients by overdosing them was spared the death penalty by a jury. A man accused in the carjack killings of 2 Massachusetts men was sentenced to death in 2003, but the punishment was overturned and he is awaiting a new penalty trial.

Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, 70 death sentences have been imposed, but only 3 have been carried out, including the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 2001.

Source: Associated Press, Feb.1, 2014

U.S. Seeking Death Penalty in Marathon Bombing

Boston Marathon finish line
moments prior to the explosions

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Thursday that it would seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, the man accused of killing and maiming people with homemade bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line last year.

The decision sets in motion the highest-profile federal death penalty case since Timothy J. McVeigh was prosecuted and executed for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The decision, however, is not cast in stone. In nearly half of federal death penalty cases, prosecutors withdraw the threat of execution before trial, typically because of a plea deal, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who had the final say on whether to authorize prosecutors to seek the death penalty, has said he personally opposes capital punishment, but he has authorized its use many times.

Prosecutors say Mr. Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, built bombs out of pressure cookers and detonated them 13 seconds apart among spectators at the finish line. The explosions killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

Source: The New York Times, January 30, 2014

USA: Will Tsarnaev face death? Decision expected in early 2014

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty against accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by Jan. 31, 2014, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman told Crimesider.

Klieman said that if the government decides to pursue the death penalty, the defense's objective will be to get a plea to life imprisonment.

"This U.S. Attorney's Office is going to be particularly sensitive to the desires of the victims," Klieman said. "There are many victims in this case who will feel that [Tsarnaev] should get death; there are other victims in this case who will feel, for a variety of reasons... that he should get life."

Klieman said if there isn't a guilty plea in the case, the trial is likely to last 9 months.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to a 30-count federal indictment that includes charges of using a weapon of mass destruction.

Authorities say Tsarnaev, 20, and his brother Tamerlan, 26, built 2 pressure-cooker bombs and placed them near the Marathon finish line. The April 15, 2013, explosions killed 3 people and wounded more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police several days after the bombings.

Source: CBS news, January 1, 2014

Capital punishment: A shift in thinking

A recent poll of Boston residents shows that 57 % of them favor a life sentence over the death penalty for bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. While Massachusetts is 1 of 18 U.S. states which have abolished the death penalty, Tsarnaev could still face capital punishment due to his actions violating federal law.

The fact that so many Bostonians believe Tsarnaev should not be put to death could be a hopeful sign that Americans are finally coming around. Opponents of capital punishment have long held that it is an archaic, wasteful and ineffective method of dispensing justice. Americans who still support it are often unable to give any credible reason beyond the reactionary urge for revenge or bloodlust.

Perhaps these Americans are unaware that the U.S. is one of only a handful of countries which still put its citizens to death. Most industrialized, Western democracies, with whom the U.S. shares many cultural and social traits, have done away with the practice years ago. Europeans, Australians, Canadians or Scandinavians are often curious to know why Americans still cling to something as inhumane and unproductive as the death penalty, while their own nations enjoy lower per capita crime rates without it.

The United States suspended the use of capital punishment in 1972 as a result of the Supreme Court's decision Furman v. Georgia. After the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, it has seen a decline in both its implementation and popularity, with few exceptions. Opponents of capital punishment have pointed to the hundreds of overturned convictions and rampant discrimination in its implementation based on race, geography and socioeconomic class as a reason not to put prisoners to death.

Then there is the fact that it has not served as a reasonable deterrent to violent crime. Recidivism rates among violent offenders have been largely unaffected in states which have the death penalty and, somewhat surprisingly, it costs a states taxpayers more to execute a prisoner than to sentence them to life in prison.

Violent crimes are horrific for everyone involved. Nobody believes a guilty offender ought to be pampered or given amnesty. The tough choice is to resist the encoded instinct for revenge and look at the bigger picture. A just society ought to hold itself to a higher standard, regardless of the circumstances. It is an approach which works in dozens of countries with which America has much in common.

By clinging to the inhumane and wasteful practice of capital punishment, the United States retains dubious membership in an unenviable club of nations which includes Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Vietnam, not exactly the company America would like to keep in light of its bombastic public condemnation of human rights violations around the world.

Source: Washington Times, September 21, 2013

USA: Globe poll favors life term for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Boston residents stick to beliefs

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

By a wide margin, Boston residents favor life without parole instead of the death penalty for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he is convicted of the attack, a Boston Globe poll found.

The poll, conducted Sept. 5 through Sept. 12, showed that 57 % of respondents support a life sentence for Tsarnaev, compared with 33 % who favor the death penalty. Although capital punishment is barred in Massachusetts, Tsarnaev has been indicted on federal charges, including using weapons of mass destruction, that could bring the death penalty.

Federal investigators say that Tsarnaev, 20, and his brother, Tamerlan, detonated 2 pressure cookers packed with explosives near the finish line of the Marathon on April 15. 3 people were killed and more than 260 were injured, many seriously. Tamerlan died April 19 in a shootout with police in Watertown.

The random telephone poll was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center for the Globe and included responses from 704 adults in Boston. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 % points.

"I'm a strong opponent of the death penalty because I feel it serves no purpose. It's not a deterrent," said Lawrence Watson, a Dorchester resident.

US Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to seek the death penalty in the case.

Preference for life without parole extended across political leanings, although Democrats overwhelmingly supported that option, 61 to 28 %, while Republicans narrowly backed a life sentence, 49 to 46 %.

Life without parole was endorsed by men and women, across all education levels, and among white, black, and Hispanic respondents.

The results "don't surprise me, frankly," said Andrew Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center. "Massachusetts is a state that has opposed the death penalty for a long time. There's a long history there. People are not going to change their long-held positions."

Although a life sentence without parole received support in nearly all demographic categories, the penalty had more support from women than men - 64 % and 50 % respectively - and from older and more affluent Bostonians.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts, which has not executed anyone since 1947, have repeatedly defeated efforts to reinstate the death penalty. In 1997, however, an attempt to reestablish capital punishment failed by a single vote in the emotional aftermath of the abduction and murder of Jeffrey Curley, a 10-year-old from Cambridge.

Still, some respondents favor the death penalty in the Marathon bombing case because of the indiscriminate violence that was unleashed.

"A lot of people were hurt, and a lot of families were affected," said Alicia Jno-Baptiste, 36, of Mattapan, who supports the death penalty for Tsarnaev if convicted. "They intended to kill thousands of people."

Life without parole is insufficient, she said, because "you still get to live. You're still alive. You can still be happy," Jno-Baptiste said. "The people they were trying to kill, they won't be able to do that stuff. He knows what he intended to do, and I think he could live with that in jail and be pretty OK."

In other survey questions, Bostonians said by 53 to 37 % that the US government can do more to prevent attacks such as the Marathon bombing. However, respondents told pollsters, by 43 to 36 %, that they believed US intelligence agencies did not have information about the Tsarnaev brothers that could have prevented the bombings.

In the wake of the attack, Smith said, "a lot of the story was how much did the feds know and could they have been more helpful in stopping the bombs. Only 1/3 of the people really believe that. I think there's a recognition among a lot of people that these are unusual events and they are difficult to predict."

In May, Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis testified in Washington before the House Homeland Security Committee that federal agents did not tell local officials that they had investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev until after the FBI identified his body. Tamerlan reportedly met with Muslim insurgents in 2012 in the restive Dagestan region of southern Russia.

"We were not aware of the 2 brothers. We were not aware of their activities," Davis testified. "We would have liked to have known."

Boston Democrats, by 47 to 31 %, said that federal intelligence agencies could not have stopped the bombing plot. Independents and Republicans were more open to the possibility that the blasts could have been prevented.

Independents, by 49 to 32 %, said the attack could have been stopped. Republicans narrowly supported that premise, 40 to 38 %.

Source: Boston Globe, September 16, 2013

Deciding on death penalty in bombing case

On a recent program, CNN’s Piers Morgan asked Arnold Schwarzenegger his opinion on whether accused Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should receive the death penalty. Although admitting that he was not fully informed about the case, the former Governor of California responded, “If convicted, I think that yeah, he should get the death penalty. Yes."

While Schwarzenegger, like the rest of us, is welcome to have and express an opinion, certainly the decision on such an important, life-and-death matter should not be based on what the majority of the public thinks or wants.

But what about the bombing victims and their families? Should their majority be a major factor on whether the Federal Government should seek the death penalty against Tsarnaev? And should their wishes be communicated to the jury?

Consistent with Justice Department procedure, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is in fact consulting with the victims and their families' families before making a recommendation to Attorney General Holder. Reportedly, she has distributed a questionnaire to hundreds of victims that includes the matter of capital punishment.

Hopefully, this part of the decision-making process is more about political correctness than public policy. It is absolutely appropriate for the victims to be kept informed about significant developments in the case. However, the preferences of victims should not guide either prosecutorial strategy or sentencing decisions.

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By James Alan Fox, Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy, Northeastern University. Source: Corrections.com, Sept. 3, 2013.

Boston bomb accused Dzhokhar Tsarnaev denies charges

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to all charges in his first court appearance, as blast victims looked on.

Mr Tsarnaev, 19, faces 30 counts of using a weapon of mass destruction in the two 15 April blasts that killed three, including an eight-year-old boy.

He appeared in shackles and an orange prison suit, and replied "not guilty" as the charges were read to the court.

Prosecutors could press for the death penalty for 17 counts.

The suspect has also been charged over the death of a fourth person, a university police officer, who was allegedly shot dead by Mr Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan in the days after the attack.

He is also charged in a carjacking incident and with downloading internet material from Islamist radicals some time before the blasts.

Mr Tsarnaev arrived at court with his face swollen and his arm in a cast.

More than 260 people were injured when two pressure cooker bombs packed with nails, ball bearings and other shrapnel were detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The bombing was the worst mass-casualty attack on US soil since 11 September 2001.

Source: BBC News, July 10, 2013

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev charged with murder in Boston bombings

The charges, including the shooting death of a police officer, could bring the death penalty.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged on Thursday with killing three people in the Boston Marathon bombings and fatally shooting a police officer in a federal indictment that alleged that he downloaded instructions on building a homemade bomb from an al-Qaeda website.

The 56-page indictment also said that Dzhkokhar contributed to the death of his 27-year-old brother, Tamerlan when he drove over him while trying to escape a confrontation with police three days after the April 15 bombings..

The 19-year-old Cambridge, Mass., student is also charged with using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and the use of a firearm resulting in death.

Tsarnaev, who faces a possible death sentence if convicted, is scheduled to be arraigned July 10. 

Source: USA Today, June 27, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing: Tsarnaev records request approved

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

A federal magistrate judge has approved a request by ­Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to have prison officials provide his lawyers with records related to his incarceration, including daily activity and suicide watch logs, psychology data files, photo­graphs, commissary files, and other records.

But US Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler rejected a defense request to have the US Bureau of Prisons keep that infor­mation from prosecutors without a court order or the ­defense lawyers’ consent.

The request for the records was made in a secret filing with the court. Bowler made the ­request public in her ruling Monday after finding there was no reason to keep it confidential. The nature of the request and how the information would be used was not immediately clear.

On Friday, the judge similarly made public a defense ­request for periodic photos of Tsarnaev, to document his condition and whether it improves, in what could be an attempt to show that the 19-year-old was in poor health when he reportedly gave statements claiming responsibility for the bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260.

The photos could be used as evidence to try to have the statements suppressed, with the lawyers arguing they were made involuntarily. Legal ­observers also said the photos could be used to argue against the death penalty, by making the claim that the teenager had suffered injuries during his capture and that a lifelong prison sentence would be suitable.

“It is true that photographs may provide probative evidence to support sentence mitigation arguments,” Bowler wrote.

Tsarnaev is being held at the Federal Medical Center Devens in Ayer. US Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether prosecutors should seek the death penalty. Tsarnaev is facing charges of using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death in the bombings.

Source: The Boston Globe, May 20, 2013

Expert on federal death penalty to defend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

A federal magistrate judge has appointed a prominent specialist in federal death penalty cases to join the defense team of alleged Boston Marathon terror bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Judy Clarke, a San Diego, Calif., attorney, has the “background, knowledge and experience” that will “enable her to provide adequate representation to the defendant,” US Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler said in a ruling today.

Clarke’s clients have included Unabomber Ted Kaczynski; Susan Smith, who drowned her two children; and most recently Tucson, Ariz., shooter Jared Loughner. All received life sentences instead of the death penalty, The Associated Press reported.

Bowler denied, for the time being, a request for the appointment of a second death penalty specialist for the defense team.

Tsarnaev, 19, faces charges of use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. He and his brother, Tamerlan, are accused in the April 15 bomb attacks on the marathon that killed three and injured more than 260. They also allegedly killed an MIT police officer. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a confrontation with police in the early morning hours of April 19. Police say they were subduing him after a shootout when his brother ran him over in a desperate escape.

Clarke joins three other attorneys — Miriam Conrad, the chief federal public defender for Massachusetts, and two assistant public defenders — in defending Tsarnaev.

The defense had asked for appointment of two attorneys “learned in the law applicable to capital cases” after Tsarnaev was charged last week.

Bowler wrote today, “A federal death penalty case implicates particular procedural requirements and ‘is extremely demanding to defend because of the effort and pressure involved.’ In light of the circumstances in this case, the defendant requires an attorney with more background, knowledge and experience in federal death penalty cases than that possessed by current counsel.”

“Appointment of Attorney Clarke is therefore justified to provide the defendant with adequate and proper representation,” Bowler wrote. 

Source: AP, April 29, 2013

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should not face the death penalty, even for a capital crime

The US Justice Department faces enormous pressure to seek the execution of Tsarnaev. But against terror, we should choose life.

There are two fundamental reasons why the death penalty should not be imposed in this case. The first is the obverse of the argument that if anyone deserves the death penalty, it is this defendant. That may well be true. But it follows that if this defendant does not deserve the death penalty, then no one does.

In other words, a decision to withhold the death penalty in this case would be a powerful argument against the morality of the death penalty in any case. As a lifelong opponent of capital punishment in all cases, I would argue that not applying it in this case could have a considerable impact on the movement toward abolition.

This abolitionist argument is unlikely to have much impact on the Obama administration, which favors the death penalty, at least in extreme cases, such as this one. There is an argument, however, that could have an impact even on proponents of the death penalty.

Seeking the death penalty against Tsarnaev, and imposing it if he were to be convicted, would turn him into a martyr. His face would appear on recruiting posters for suicide bombers. The countdown toward his execution might well incite other acts of terrorism. Those seeking paradise through martyrdom would see him as a role model.

Whether the death penalty actually deters crime has been long debated. I have little doubt that some criminals may well be deterred by the prospect of execution rather than life imprisonment, though I am not certain how many. But I also have little doubt that some defendants, especially those motivated by ideological extremism, may be incentivized by the prospect of martyrdom.

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Source: The Guardian, Alan Dershowitz, April 24, 2013

Boston Bombing Suspect Receives All-Star Defense Team

FBI (BOSTON) -- Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev managed to say just one word to a federal judge when charges were filed against him in a makeshift courtroom held at the side of his hospital bed: "No."

His reply was in response to whether he could afford an attorney.

As a result, Tsarnaev, 19, who is facing the possibility of the death penalty for his alleged role in last week's terror attack, will be represented by one of the most experienced and well respected public defenders in the country, Miriam Conrad.

Conrad heads the Federal Public Defender Office in Boston and her resume includes defending "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in 2001 for trying to blow up a Paris to Miami jetliner.

"She is excellent, tough, tenacious and wise," said Tamar R. Birckhead, now a University of North Carolina law professor who worked with Conrad for four years, including on the Reid case.

Tsarnaev is charged with detonating a weapon of mass destruction and maliciously destroying public property -- capital offenses that carry the death penalty. He is currently in the hospital being treated for wounds sustained in a shootout with police last week prior to his capture.

Conrad and several other attorneys from her office were listed in court documents as the team representing Tsarnaev. Among them was William S. Fick, who was present at Monday's hearing held inside Tsarnaev's hospital room. Fick requested additional help from attorneys who have previously handled death penalty cases, a requirement under federal law.

Conrad and her team have a difficult case ahead of them. They are trying to keep alive someone many would consider to be the most hated man in America. Their client is bedridden and barely able to communicate. Facing budget cuts as a result of the federal sequester, they are up against the U.S. attorney general and FBI that have made Tsarnaev's prosecution a top priority.

"It's a David and Goliath situation," said Birckhead. "There's an assumption that the defendant is guilty, and should be immediately executed. All of that is a tough road to travel."

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ABC News Radio, April 24, 2013

Marathon tragedy fails to help death-penalty push

BOSTON -- The House killed a budget amendment reinstating the death penalty Tuesday, with area lawmakers split on whether the Boston Marathon bombings should sway the Legislature's vote.

"I would assume that with everything that's happened, with public-safety people putting their lives on the line, we would feel that we owe it to them to protect them," state Rep. James Miceli, the Wilmington Democrat who filed the amendment, said in an interview after the vote.

The amendment, filed before the Boston tragedy that killed three people and injured more than 260, would have imposed the death penalty for murders of public officials, including police, firefighters, and corrections officers.

On a 119 to 38 vote, the House rejected attaching Miceli's amendment to budget deliberations and sent it to the Judiciary Committee to study the death penalty's economic impacts. But some legislators, including Miceli and Rep. Shauna O'Connell, R-Taunton, were skeptical the Legislature would ever see the study's results.

"There will be no study; if there is it will be a one-page report," Miceli said.

The Legislature has rebuffed other efforts to reinstate the death penalty. Former Gov. Mitt Romney filed legislation in 2005 that would have imposed the death penalty for murders of police officers, terrorism or torture.

Massachusetts, which abolished the death penalty in 1984, is one of 17 states without it. New Hampshire is the only New England state that has a death penalty.

Source: Lowell Sun, April 24, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Could Face Federal Death Penalty

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has a range of legal options in the Boston Marathon bombings, and they could include seeking the death penalty against the 19-year-old suspect in the case.

The administration has indicated it intends to move quickly to build a criminal case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. But investigators plan to first question him without informing him of his legal rights to remain silent and have an attorney present.

He has yet to be charged but prosecutors appear to have no shortage of federal laws at their disposal.

The most serious charge would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Three people died in the twin explosions in Boston and more than 180 were injured.

Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, and it remains to be seen whether the administration would try to persuade a jury to sentence Tsarnaev to death.

An early question that arose after Tsarnaev’s capture Friday was how to conduct his initial interrogation.

The administration said it would not immediately inform him of legal protections known as the Miranda rights. Instead, prosecutors planned to invoke a public safety exception created by the need to protect police and the public from immediate danger.

The American Civil Liberties Union’s executive director, Anthony Romero, said the exception applies only when there’s a continued threat to public safety, like whether there is imminent danger from other bombs, and is “not an open-ended exception” to the Miranda rule.

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Source: CBS Boston, April 20, 2013