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

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

The Execution Standard

As the oldest constitutional democracy in the world, the United States is often criticized for continuing to carry out state-sanctioned executions. Over the past couple of generations, every European country, with the exception of Belarus, has outlawed the death penalty. The principle is enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

But we have not always been the throwbacks. In fact, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the English colonies had far fewer capital laws than England and other European states.

My students have been reading the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, written in 1641 as a guide for the colony's General Court. It included 12 capital laws. Religious crimes such as witchcraft and blasphemy came first, then murder (three different types), then sex crimes (rape was not among them), followed by kidnapping, bearing false witness in a capital case, and treason. That seemed like a lot, until we discovered that the list of capital crimes back in the old country was more than 10 times as long.

The Puritans were certainly not free thinkers. They harassed and tortured religious and political dissenters, and they were perfectly willing to execute criminals in capital cases. But they radically reduced the number of offenses punishable by death under English law.

Click here to read the full article

Source: philly.com, October 9, 2013

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

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 bombing: Latest Federal cases resulted in life sentences ... after initial thoughts about the death penalty

Given the now-notorious circumstances of the bombing, Tsarnaev could theoretically be charged with use of weapons of mass destruction resulting in death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that researches capital punishment.

That statute and other federal charges can be punishable by execution, said Dieter, who also predicted "there's a good likelihood" the government would seek the death penalty.

Current Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her staff are expected to decide the specific federal charges filed against Tsarnaev. If the charges are death penalty-eligible, she would make a recommendation to Attorney General Eric Holder.

He would review the recommendation, as would a panel at the main Department of Justice office in Washington - and defense lawyers would have an opportunity to submit arguments at both reviews. Holder would then issue the final decision, the final step in a process that Dieter said would likely entail "some months of consideration."

"A case like this, I would think there would be no problem" to get Department of Justice approval to seek the death penalty, said Alexander Bunin, the former top federal public defender in New York's northern district. "There certainly isn't any reason I could think of that it wouldn't be authorized."

Nancy Hollander, a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, similarly theorized that prosecutors would seek execution "if the death penalty applies under federal charges that are brought."

Even if Tsarnaev pleaded guilty, a federal jury would have to decide on the death penalty.

However, Dieter stressed that the Washington decision-making process would weigh potential mitigating factors, such as Tsarnaev's relatively young age and his mental state.

Although Timothy McVeigh was executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Dieter noted that federal prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against Unabomber Ted Kaczynski or for Eric Rudolph, the so-called Olympic Park bomber captured in 2003 who confessed to a string of attacks across the southern U.S. during the 1990s. Instead, prosecutors agreed to guilty pleas and life sentences for both.

More recently, Jared Loughner, the Arizona gunman who shot then-U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords and others in a 2011 attack, was sentenced to seven consecutive terms of life in prison after he pleaded guilty in federal court.

"These cases were federal cases, and all of them resulted in life sentences ... after initial thoughts about the death penalty," Dieter said. 

Source: USA Today, April 21, 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

Romney proposed 'foolproof' death penalty in Massachussetts

BOSTON – As Massachusetts governor, Republican Mitt Romney set himself a daunting challenge: craft a death penalty law that virtually guaranteed only the guilty could be executed, then push it through an overwhelmingly Democratic state Legislature that was leery of capital punishment.

Making the task even more difficult, the push by Romney — who is now running for president — came in 2005 at a time of growing national skepticism about the death penalty. Just two years earlier, Illinois Gov. George Ryan had cleared his state's death row after the death sentences of several inmates had been overturned.

Romney decided to tackle that skepticism by coming up with what he said would be a "gold standard for the death penalty in the modern scientific age."

In trying to set a new and higher bar, Romney also was chasing two political goals.

The first was to fulfill a promise, made during his 2002 run for governor, to try to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts, then one of a dozen states that had banned the punishment. The second was to burnish his conservative resume as he looked ahead to 2008 and his first run for president.

"We believe that the capital punishment bill that we put forward is not only right for Massachusetts, but it's a model for the nation," Romney said at the time, in comments similar to what he said about his overhaul of the state health insurance system. That law became a blueprint for the sweeping federal health care overhaul enacted by President Barack Obama, which has become an issue in the White House race.

Romney's handling of the death penalty issue opened a window into the type of management style he could bring to the White House if elected. He hand-picked a commission and outlined his goals in broad terms. Then he turned the panel's recommendations into a bill that ultimately failed to get through the Legislature. But his decision to fight an uphill battle on an issue that had begun to lose its urgency also showed Romney wasn't afraid of a political fight.

His first step was to pull together a panel of legal scholars, prosecutors, crime lab officials, a medical geneticist and criminologist Henry Lee, who played a key role in the O.J. Simpson murder trial and other highly publicized cases.

One of those heading up the panel was Joseph Hoffmann, a law professor at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law. Hoffman said Romney gave the group a free hand, but suggested they focus on harnessing "the power of science" to improve on death penalty laws in other states.

"He said 'this is completely up to you.' We were given an amazing amount of discretion and leeway," Hoffman said. "He wanted us to be free to discuss this, talk about it and propose any ideas, any improvement, any processes that would make this the best death penalty anyone had ever proposed."

The bill Romney filed adopted many of the panel's recommendations.

It limited capital punishment to the "worst of the worst" crimes — including terrorism, the murder of police officers, murder involving torture and the killing of witnesses — and required a "no doubt" standard of guilt.

It outlined a series of safeguards, including a requirement that physical evidence, such as DNA, directly link the defendant to the crime scene. Lethal injection was the specified method of execution. The bill also mandated an additional review of evidence before an execution could be carried out. Every death penalty case would have separate juries for trial and sentencing.

Part of Massachusetts' reluctance to impose death sentences comes from its rocky history with the penalty.

One of the most controversial cases involved the executions of Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were put to death in 1927 after being convicted of killing two people during a robbery. Many observers, then and now, say the trial focused unfairly on their anarchist political beliefs and immigrant status.

The state abolished capital punishment in 1984.

By the time Romney took office in 2003, Massachusetts hadn't put anyone to death since 1947, although it had come within a single vote of restoring the death penalty after the 1997 kidnapping and murder of a 10-year-old boy.

But by 2005, lawmakers had again begun to turn away from the death penalty. Some cited human error and prejudice among reasons to steer clear of reinstating it.

"Errors have been made and will continue to be made," Rep. John Keenan, a Democrat and descendant of one of the victims of the Salem witch trials, said during debate over the bill.

Even Romney conceded the possibility of human fallibility during a public hearing on the measure.

"A 100 percent guarantee? I don't think there's such a thing in life. Except perhaps death — for all of us," Romney said, although he described the proposal "as foolproof a death penalty as exists."

Others saw political motives in Romney's efforts.

"There was no way the Massachusetts Legislature was going to pass a death penalty bill," state Rep. David Linsky, a Democrat who opposed Romney's bill and had helped investigate or prosecute about 25 murder cases as an assistant district attorney, said in an interview. "It was all about setting up his future conservative credentials outside Massachusetts."

Others, including many Republican and moderate Democrats backed the measure, however. But the bill was defeated on a 99-to-53 vote in the House after more than four hours of impassioned debate.

Not all the criticism of Romney's proposal came from death penalty foes.

Some conservatives said his plan was so narrowly drawn and had so many layers of safeguards that it would be virtually impossible to carry out an execution under it.

Now running for president a second time, Romney hasn't spent time touting the death penalty proposal. He prefers to focus the debate on the issue his campaign believes offers him the best chance of winning in November: the economy.

Source: AP, July 16, 2012

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Massachusetts: Youth hanged on arson charges amid hysteria

Newburyport was gripped with fear following the Great Fire of 1811, when nearly all of the downtown was destroyed. Residents whose wealth had been reduced to nothing still hadn't recovered their fortunes when in 1820 another arsonist emerged on the scene.

Just as the fire of 1811 was preceded by several failed arson attempts in the vicinity of Inn Street — noticed and doused before inflicting damage — a similar rash of small fires was reported in the downtown area in 1820.

Then, one night, a fire set by a purposeful hand broke out in a hay barn on Temple Street and spread to nearby buildings. An investigation of the incident uncovered a witness who said young Stephen Clark was to blame for setting the fire. The 14-year-old boy had been in some trouble before, and perhaps due to the misery left behind in the wake of the Great Fire, he was sentenced to pay the ultimate price.

While several family members provided an alibi for Stephen, he was sentenced to death based on the testimony of a woman who claimed the teen had admitted to the crime and threatened to set the whole city on fire when he had the chance. Over the cries of residents begging Salem court officials to commute his sentence, Stephen was hanged on May 10, 1821, at Winter Island in Salem.

"Such was his horror of death, that it was found necessary, amidst his cries and lamentations, actually to force him from his cell, and drag him to the place of execution. It is much to be doubted whether any person of ordinary sensibility and reflection could have viewed the officers of justice, overcoming with difficulty their natural repugnance to such a task, and dragging with violence a fellow being, a youth, a mere miserable and deluded boy, to the gallows," wrote Robert Rantoul Jr.

The possibility that Stephen had been falsely accused of the crimes, coupled with the horror of witnesses who were there at the hanging, formed the impetus for a movement to ban the death penalty in cases of arson. Rantoul's statement above was made to argue the merits of abolishing the death penalty.

Stephen's death was the last official capital punishment in the state for cases of arson.

Source: Newburyport News, June 1, 2011

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Virginia Likely to Make More Eligible for Death Penalty

Death penalty expansion bills that were blocked in recent years likely will become law in Virginia under a new administration, making more people eligible for what is already the nation's 2nd-busiest death chamber.

Since he took office in 2006, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has vetoed 15 bills making everyone from murder accomplices to killers of on-duty auxiliary police or fire marshals eligible for the death penalty. Legislators have overridden some of Kaine's vetoes, and currently there are 15 crimes that are punishable by death in Virginia.

Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell has said he will sign legislation to expand the death penalty, even though other states are restricting capital punishment or repealing it altogether.

Opponents argue expansion would be costly as the state grapples with billions in revenue shortfalls and increase the risk of sending an innocent person to death row.

"I don't believe that any of these are going to result in a significant difference in the number of capital prosecutions in Virginia," said Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, noting that many of the bills blocked in the past would have applied to very few crimes.

A month before Virginia's legislators return to Richmond, Obenshain again filed legislation to eliminate Virginia's triggerman rule, which reserves capital punishment for the person who actually does the killing and, he says, "allows rape-murderers, child-murderers and cop-killers to avoid the death penalty if they get somebody else to pull the trigger."

Of the 35 death penalty states, 24 allow accomplices to face capital punishment. Obenshain said not doing so produces "illogical" results when two people commit a crime but only one can face death.

The bill has passed the last 3 years - even in the Democrat-controlled Senate - but Kaine vetoed it. Each year, senators came up a couple votes shy of the 2/3 majority needed to override the veto. The next legislative session begins Jan. 13.

Many states are trying to reduce the number of death penalty cases.

New Mexico lawmakers voted this year to abolish the death penalty, and 10 other states considered repealing it. Gov. Jodi Rell vetoed a measure to abolish it in Connecticut. In Maryland, lawmakers limited when prosecutors can seek the death penalty.

Attempts to expand the death penalty in other states were unsuccessful.

An effort to allow a death sentence without a unanimous jury in Georgia was defeated, as was an attempt to expand qualifying crimes in New Hampshire, where capital punishment is rare. Attempts to reinstate the death penalty in Alaska, West Virginia and Massachusetts also failed.

"A change in administration sometimes marks a political change, but the facts haven't really changed," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty.

The center published a report in early December that showed dramatic drops in both death sentences and executions nationwide. It attributes that tofears of executing the innocent, the high cost of capital punishment and laws that allow inmates to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"Politically, it's a tempting way to go - stand up and push for the death penalty. But I think there's also a reality: More death penalty is more costly, there's no way around that," Dieter said.

Kansas lawmakers are scheduled to debate a proposal in January to abolish the death penalty based almost entirely on the argument that it is too expensive. A recent study there found that seeking the death penalty in Kansas costs 4 times more in legal fees, and housing death row inmates costs an additional $1,000 a year.

A similar study is under way in Virginia, where the corrections system has lost millions of dollars in funding since July 2008 as Kaine worked to cut state spending by $10 billion.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said the governor-elect believes the death penalty is rightly reserved for the most heinous and violent crimes, and that money is not a consideration.

"The governor-elect views it as a criminal justice and public safety matter, not as a potential source of budget savings," Martin said.

Virginia has executed 105 inmates, more than any state except Texas, since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Texas has executed 447.

Kaine, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic, opposes the death penalty but has allowed 11 executions and commuted one death sentence. There are currently 14 people on Virginia's death row.

Opponents say expanding the death penalty, especially to those not directly responsible for a death, opens the door to discrimination.

"It will not make the citizens of Virginia any safer and will exacerbate the already arbitrary application on the basis of race and geography," said Beth Panilaitis, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Source: WJLA News, December 31, 2009