Defense Rests in Boston Marathon Bombing Trial

[DonViejo]

Source: Slate

Attorneys representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his federal trial over charges related to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing rested their case Tuesday after calling four witnesses. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s representatives have already admitted that he helped carry out the bombing and are attempting only to persuade the jury that Dzhokhar should not be sentenced to death because his brother Tamerlan was more responsible for their crimes. From the AP:

During its brief case, the defense called a cell site analyst who showed that Tsarnaev was at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth when Tamerlan purchased components of the two bombs used in the 2013 attack, including pressure cookers and BBs.

Tsarnaev's lawyer told jurors that it was Tamerlan who shot and killed MIT police Officer Sean Collier three days after the bombings. Tamerlan died after a gun battle with police hours after Collier's slaying.

The Boston Herald notes that the defense also called an FBI fingerprint examiner who said that the only prints recovered from the marathon crime scene matched Tamerlan Tsarnaev, not Dzhokhar.

Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/03/31/dzhokhar_tsarnaev_defense_rests.html?wpsrc=slatest_newsletter&sid=5388f1c6dd52b8e4110003de

[Fearless]

1. He should have to live with the pain he's caused so many people.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Hopefully not for long.

He has no feelings. None. The guy is absolute filth.

[Fearless]

6. It's not up to us to seek revenege for his actions but to seek justice

I would rather see him live 100 years and possibly come to understand what he did. While at the same time actually treating the issue as a nation by caring for the survivors and the families of the victims of this act. And even if he never understands the pain that he caused, that he'll live deprived of his freedoms for his actions.

Killing him will not solve anything. And it certainly won't help the families of those affected.

[yeoman6987]

8. Ok but I want him in a private prison with moldy bread.

That was a tread today. A nasty private prison that basically feeds the population nasty food.

[Fearless]

13. You want him to work at McDonalds?

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. Rather than a job, I hope that he joins his brother very soon.

You know, the one that he killed.

[Fearless]

19. He didn't kill his brother.

His brother was shot to death in a shoot out with the Boston Police.

[TheCowsCameHome]

22. Too bad the cops didn't nail him, too.

Everyone would be happier now.

Of course, little brother grinding him up in a stolen SUV's wheelwell was an act of love.

[Fearless]

28. He didn't shoot at police.

Maybe you would be happier if he was killed, but this doesn't concern you. The only people who's happiness matters in this issue is the victims of the crime. Full stop. Killing him will NOT help the victims. Whether or not the government has fulfilled blood-lust desires and killed a person has nothing to do with you.

[TheCowsCameHome]

29. Why were there victims? Did you ever wonder about that?

Oh, yeah, this subhuman pile of filth decided to ruin the lives of hundred and hundreds of innocent people on a sunny April day. HE made them victims.

You should stop trying to make this monster look like a victim.

I hope he burns in Hell for eternity.

And that has nothing to do with YOU.

[Fearless]

30. There is no hell.

You're looking for some metaphysical excuse to exercise blood-lust revenge on another person. And yes they are a person. Everyone is a person regardless of what act or atrocity they have committed. You are trying to justify revenge killing someone by claiming they are subhuman. He is not a monster, he is a person who did monstrous things. And there is a huge difference.

It's not like if we kill him then he will get his just desserts. He'll just be dead. In the ground, dead. I would rather him see justice in real life and not in a religious wet dream catch all supported by right wing fanatics seeking revenge. We are a nation of laws and we are supposed to be civilized. Let him spend the rest of his life in jail. Support the victims in the challenges they face. And most of all, don't condone the ending of a life, any life, no matter how lackadaisically treated by the individual or another, as a justification for murder.

The death penalty is morally wrong in all situations.

[TheCowsCameHome]

32. April 15, 2013 was pretty close,

thanks to that animal.

He'll be pleased to know that you are on his side.

[Fearless]

34. I am on the side of justice for ALL

And justice in this case is him seeing a jail cell for the rest of his natural life and being required to seek counseling for his staggering lack of empathy for his fellow human. He wants to die. I am doing him no service by suggesting that justice should be served.

And again, he is a person not an animal. People often demonize someone to inhuman levels to justify their treatment of that person. People allow the reptilian lower brain response of revenge to cloud their better judgement. The kill or be killed reaction has no place in civilized society.

Capital punishment is wrong.

[TheCowsCameHome]

42. ...because you say it is wrong.

Well, that settles that.

Not.

[Fearless]

43. Because it is wrong to kill.

[Gore1FL]

23. Not me

Why give him the easy way out by putting him out of his misery, especially since he even stated he wanted as much? I did that to my dog because I loved him. Why would I show that same mercy to this miserable piece of flesh and run the risk of making him an inspirational martyr to someone?

Dying nameless and forgotten after a lifetime in ADX Florence isn't punishment enough, but at least it's punishment.

[yourmovemonkey]

33. I totally agree

The suffering of death is too short and too easy when it's weighed against the lifetime that the families of his victims will spend remembering what he did to the people they loved. In order for someone to truly feel any pain and suffering equal to what they dispensed, they have to live a very long time.

[Gore1FL]

35. Make him look at pictures of his victims and learn their stories--every day of his life.

[yeoman6987]

27. Cute! Good one I must admit.

[ailsagirl]

2. Was it worth it, Mr. Tsarnaev??

[cosmicone]

4. He will probably answer yes

like some other fanatics who think 9/11 was worth it despite costing a million plus lives and untold misery to a whole lot more.

[Gore1FL]

24. Per his writing in the boat, it was.

http://hosted2.ap.org/MAGRE/4e06196a1f11442a96197ec8174afd24/Article_2015-03-10-US-Boston-Marathon-Bombing-Boat-Text/id-cb2ac375b74d47078b47643a1ff02a9b

I'm jealous of my brother who

ha (hole) ceived the reward of jannutul Firdaus (inshallah)

before me. I do not mourn because his soul is

very much alive. God has a plan for each person.

Mine was to hide in his boat and shed some

light on our actions I ask Allah to make me a

shahied (iA) to allow me to return to him and

be among all the righteous people in the highest levels

of heaven.

He who Allah guides no one can misguide

A (hole) bar!

More at link

[cosmicone]

5. Yay ... can't wait for the lethal injection n/t

[Fearless]

7. Are you actually salivating over the possibility of someone being put to death?

[yeoman6987]

9. I am not excited about it, but did you see that precious six-year old slaughtered by him?

[Fearless]

11. I stand by my statement that government sanctioned revenge killing is wrong

Regardless of the crime.

Besides, as an atheist I don't believe in some divine arbiter after death guaranteeing justice for all. I'd like to see it during life. No one can bring people back from the dead. But we as a nation should focus on HELPING those who were harmed in ways that actually help.

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

[cosmicone]

15. Yes, this asshole deserves it.

It also sends a message to other similarly situated assholes.

[Fearless]

18. Except that ALL EVIDENCE shows that it DOES NOT discourage crime.

He doesn't deserve anything. He deserves less than anything. It's the families that deserve something, they deserve care and assistance. Killing him will not solve their issues, but it will help the general public quickly forget they exist.

Evidently it was foolish of me to dream of a time when the Democratic Party was against the death penalty, never mind salivating over the possibility of someone being killed for the sake of blood-lust vengeance. The rest of the civilized world got rid of the death penalty decades ago. We should follow, or we should stop kidding ourselves and accept the fact that we're savage and violent people.

[Gore1FL]

25. I don't think making a martyr of him in their eyes will send any message but one of encouragement.nt

[rocktivity]

10. Then why didn't he take a plea deal?

The death penalty come off the table in exchange for his admitting guilt?


rocktivity

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. It wasn't offered.

This whole trial circus could have been avoided and a ton of money saved.

[rocktivity]

16. Well duh.

Or was it more important that this guy be made a public spectacle, I mean example of?


rocktivity

[Bryce Butler]

14. Federal prosecutors never offered a deal like that...

The defense attorneys wanted life without parole, but the Justice Department has resisted removing the death penalty as a possibility.

[Warpy]

21. it wasn't offered

I've always looked at this guy with a little more dispassion than most people here.

The fact is that his parents left him when he was a 16 year old kid so Mama wouldn't get prosecuted for shoplifting.

The fact is that he was left in the care of an older brother who was already going down the Islamic lunatic road. This was his only family, the only person he had left to cling to."His brother's boxing coach, who had not seen them in a few years at the time of the bombings, said that "the young brother was like a puppy dog, following his older brother"."--Wikipedia

The fact is that he'd been a typical 16 year old drifter, smoking grass and doing other 16 year old things with a few acquaintances from school. He'd been given absolutely no direction at that point. He made it to college, partied, and was close to flunking out when his brother combined a visit with a shopping trip for pressure cookers and BBs.

And don't forget, he didn't have a firearm at the time of his capture. It's unlikely his brother had trusted him with one.

His brother is the only one suspected of a brutal drug killing.

We'll never know the whole truth, of course, but I think there's enough evidence that he was a patsy for his nutbar brother that the DP should have been off the table since the beginning.

The desire to hit back is natural. I'm not sure it's appropriate in this case. Yes, he belongs in prison for not going to someone to warn them about what was going down. The DP in his case would be a gross miscarriage of justice because there is sufficient doubt he was acting solely on his own volition. The note he wrote while he hid in the boat was his big brother talking, the big brother he'd made sure was finally dead by running over him.

[Gore1FL]

26. He wants to die. He said so. n/t

[rocktivity]

37. In hopes that they'll deny what he wants by giving him life.

Oldest trick in the book.


rocktivity

[Gore1FL]

41. He wrote it on the wall of the boat when he was hiding and wounded.

I would think, given the circumstances, those were his true feelings. He obviously didn't think very far ahead when it came to executing the bombing. He was healthy when he planned and carried out that act. I have difficulty believing that, while tired and bleeding after a long night and day run from the police, he was capable of thinking ahead to his trial. I find it even more difficult that in that state he decided to employ reverse-psychology approach to assure life in prison over capital punishment.

I think he wanted to die for the same reasons Zacarias Moussaoui wanted to die. I'd like them both to die years from now, forgotten.

[Miles Archer]

20. This WORTHLESS motherfucker needs to BURN.

This is evil on the highest order.

There is no way to "explain" the actions of this little shit.

He needs to suffer, and then suffer some more.

So sorry if you do not approve of my attitude. Google what happened to some of the victims and then tell me why you're upset with me.

[Fearless]

31. And he suffers by dying humanely?

Or by spending a life in jail and being made to atone for the issues on a daily basis?

[seveneyes]

36. NO, not burn or any other act that shortens his misery

He should be sentenced to rejection in a morass of anonymity. Leave him alone in an isolation cell of his own making.

[Little Tich]

38. I really hope he gets a fair trial. n/t

[GoneFishin]

39. Too late. His own lawyers told the judge, jury, and the public that he was guilty. Shittiest

legal representation ever in the history of the world or damn close to it.

[Little Tich]

40. Shitty trials create martyrs.

I just googled “Tsarnaev innocent”, and it’s already started.

[jakeXT]

44. We might learn something

Mysteriously, a Lead Not Followed

More recently, the prosecution zeroed in on text messages between Dzhokhar and an unnamed acquaintance in which the two discuss Islam, jihad, and becoming Imams. Despite the prosecution’s claim that jihadism was the motivation for the attack, no questions have been asked regarding the identity of the person discussing jihad with the accused bomber.

Many radical jihadists pursue terrorism for non-religious reasons, and are not devout Muslims or even well educated on Islam.

One expert on the subject, Doug Sanders, wrote in his book, The Myth of the Muslim Tide:

“Rather than intense monastic religious devotees, they [jihadists] tend to be non-faithful individuals who are drawn to radical peer groups for political or personal, but not religious, reasons.”

http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/03/31/religious-discrimination-in-tsarnaev-trial/