Dzhokhar Charged, Administration Confirms Civilian Prosecution
Two important updates on the Marathon Bomber.
First, according to WCVB, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged this morning in front of a magistrate judge in his hospital bed.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving accused Boston Marathon bomber, has been arraigned in his hospital bed, a federal official tells NewsCenter 5’s Kelley Tuthill.
The complaint against him has been sealed and is not public, according to Gary Wente, the circuit executive for the U.S. Courts in Boston.
A magistrate went to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Monday for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s initial appearance.
Also this morning, Jay Carney announced at his press conference that Dzhokhar will be tried in civilian court; he will not be treated as an enemy combatant (which he couldn’t be legally in any case).
Now let’s see what kind of access the government permits his lawyer.
Update: Here’s the complaint (h/t Mike Scarcella)
Update: Here’s a transcript from the appearance. (h/t NYT)
Charged, but maybe not formally read nor preliminary hearing date set so as to constitute a formal arraignment. Looks like that was reserved for first actual court date. Not totally clear, but looks that way.
Dang, lookie here! (1) Charged with a crime (2) in Federal court. The U.S. Government has checked off two, count them two, things often considered part and parcel of the Rule of Law — or, at least, has sidestepped the idiots howling to ship a U.S. citizen offshore to Guantanamo Bay. A proud day, a proud day. Keep those integrity-based and constitutionally mandated obvious decisions coming, U.S. Government.
I must admit, some of the suggestions being helpfully offered by actual elected officials are at the very least amusing. I love the idea that the FBI “dropped the ball” by not immediately and indeterminately incarcerating a guy on the informal sayso of — wait for it — the Russian government. And everybody’s heads aren’t spinning around upon hearing that why?
The saddest, most surprising part of this story is that it’s News.
@What Constitution: I do apologize for not linking to this with my last comment, but it didn’t occur to me to check YouTube for this clip, which some fun-loving person with too much time on their hands apparently remembers as fondly as I do. Without further ado, Steve Martin upon learning that the Russians ought to control our law enforcement decisions:
http://anotherspinningheadytmnd.ytmnd.com/
@What Constitution:
A lot of people seem to think that being checked out by the FBI should put you on some kind of permanent watch list, even if they didn’t find anything. ‘We don’ need no steenkin’ fac’s!’