Thread: Tsarnaev hearing to focus on death penalty protocol

Tsarnaev hearing to focus on death penalty protocol

Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY 10:49 a.m. EDT September 23, 2013

He faces federal capital charges; Massachusetts does not have a state death penalty


This file photo of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was released by the FBI April 19, 2013.(Photo: AP)

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be in court Monday in Boston to discuss the timing and guidelines that federal prosecutors will use in deciding whether to seek the death penalty.
Tsarnaev, 20, will be tried on federal charges in connection with the April 15 bombings, which left 3 people dead and more than 200 injured. Massachusetts does not have a state death penalty.
He is also accused of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer while on the run three days later.
Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 counts of a federal indictment, including using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and 16 other charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
A decision on whether to seek capital punishment will be made by U.S. attorney General Eric Holder on the advice of the U.S. attorney in Boston.
Tsarnaev, who is being held at a federal prison medical center outside Boston, was not expected to appear in court.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 27-year-old brother Tamerlan were both accused of building and planting pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the annual race.
The older Tsarnaev died during a shootout with police April18. The brothers were attempting to flee the city after their sketches were released as suspects by the FBI.
Tsarnaev escaped by car and was found wounded the next day huddled in a boat in the backyard of a home in Watertown, Mass.
Authorities say the brothers were inspired by al-Qaeda publications and that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a confession in the boat in which he tried to justify the bombings as payback for U.S. military action in Muslim countries.
He wrote that the U.S. government was "killing our innocent civilians."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/23/boston-bombing-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-death-penalty/2854293/

Christian Science Monitor

Accused Boston bomber will learn by January if US will seek death

Reuters ‎- 24 minutes ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar ... who is being held at a federal prison west of Boston ahead of trial, was not ...