Boston Marathon Bombing

[Embar Angylwrath]

Ok, so the authorities have one suspect in custody, the other is dead. The one in custody is a US citizen (naturalized). The authorities decided not to read him his Miranda rights.

WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING!!!!!

Any defense lawyer now has an excellent shot at getting any information disclosed during the interrogation excluded from use by the prosecution.

[Massterloo]

I think he is going straight to Guantonamo, and water boarding. Good for him. If not, dump his ass in the middle of Fenway park. Maybe he'll got to 2nd base before being torn apart.

[Tarfang_Trubasher]

Was just thinking the same thing as Loo -- what third world nation, housing a special interrogation team, is about to grow in population by one...

-TF

[Harlowe]

They've invoked the public safety exemption for now which gives them 48 hours, but it's likely a judge will be reading him his Miranda Rights at his bedside on Monday. He's still in critical (or serious) but stable condition, so he's most likely not in a position to communicate yet.

Just having him disappear to Guantanamo would be a horrible idea, because this is still a U.S. Citizen. We'll just create a more volatile situation, because as a U.S. citizen if he's not given the same rights/treatment as Timothy McVeigh - which is still the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in this country (168 dead) - we're taking away rights based on the religion or color of the suspect.

I want the guy to live, because I want the authorities to get every smidgen of information/details out of him they can or have as many details as we can get come out in court, shipping him off somewhere is only going to hurt us in the end, I think.

[Kulaf]

We've had this discussion before. It all depends on what your goals for the interview are. If you are in need of speed and want to know answers to questions you have no intention of using at trial......ask all you want. Just understand that you are gathering intel for the prevention of future crimes......not to build a case against the suspect.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Granted there is plenty of other evidence. However, here's how I would lay it out if I were the defense attorney.

1. Can't prove which bomb, if any, was placed by the defendant. Any statement he makes in regards to that question would be inadmissible without his Miranda rights.
2. Hard to prove motive, which is key here to the Fed's prosecution. If he says "I want to further the cause of Al Queda and bring about destruction to the US" without his Miranda rights, that's inadmissible in court. He might change his mind later, and suddenly realize he took the actions he did because he was afraid of his older brother. Suddenly, terrorism is harder to prove.

The Feds stance is they get to ask him questions under the "imminent threat" exception to Miranda. Its a narrow exclusion, but DOJ has instructed its people to interpret it broadly.

Here's the rub. If the Feds overstep the exclusion, they risk losing ground in the prosecution. If he walks on Fed charges because of that, then he gets charged for multiple murders and other charges at a state level. And Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty for murder.

To others who think he can be deported to Gitmo...no. He's a US citizen and he's entitled to have a trial under the laws of the Constitution and outside of the international laws covering prisoners of war. Also, a US citizen can't be forcibly deported without having citizenship revoked.

That said, I am curious to see how this plays out. The kid is 19, and he's up against some very bright minds in the DOJ. I think they'll preserve enough admissible evidence to get him the death penalty under Federal statute.

[Ddrak]

Al-Qaeda (@alqaeda) tweeted at 9:25 PM on Fri, Apr 19, 2013:

The way I see it, it's just payback for Boston's brutal attacks on Grozny in '96 & '99. Wait, what? #watertown

(https://twitter.com/alqaeda/status/325208451179503616)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Kulaf]

1. Can't prove which bomb, if any, was placed by the defendant. Any statement he makes in regards to that question would be inadmissible without his Miranda rights.

I think they will have little problem tracing bomb residue from the site of the incident to some location where they were made that both of the suspects will be tied to. They don't have to prove which suspect placed which bombs......they can prove conspiracy to comitt murder and terroristic acts.

2. Hard to prove motive, which is key here to the Fed's prosecution. If he says "I want to further the cause of Al Queda and bring about destruction to the US" without his Miranda rights, that's inadmissible in court. He might change his mind later, and suddenly realize he took the actions he did because he was afraid of his older brother. Suddenly, terrorism is harder to prove.

To my knowledge they have no ties to AQ. They are Chechen by birth. The older of the two returned recently from 6 months in Russia. I am sure the Russians will give us all the cooperation they can.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nati ... 1067.story

[Ddrak]

Kid was probably coerced and brainwashed by his brother. If that's the case, he's more to be pitied than sentenced to death (not that I think anyone should be killed by the government).

Dd

[Harlowe]

I've had that feeling since more information came out about the older brother. Their hard-ass dad is in Russia, younger brother's influence is now his older brother. An older brother that seems to be violent (domestic violence charges), and other than doing well boxing, wasn't holding down a job, didn't finish college or really have any kind of career other than boxing. He also (within the past year or two) became really religious, then traveled to Chechnya for 6 months....where the younger brother was well liked, had a bright future from what everyone has said - and former teachers, high school friends, college friends all say he was a great guy. He was kind, he was funny, also kind of a stoner and he partied like normal college students. He mentored other wrestlers, he was an athlete, popular, I think even worked with special needs kids. Another said he was so grateful for being here and having all the opportunities he had. He just doesn't fit the profile like the brother did, so you just wonder...what the hell happened.

At least one terrorism expert said the attack appeared to be "homegrown" and that the suspects appear unsophisticated and without ties to or training from international terrorist groups. The lack of sophistication and that they had to rob (was it an ATM or convenience store) to get money indicates they didn't have a large outside funding in their opinion.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Its beginning to look like they were part of a larger sleeper cell.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news ... hA.twitter

[Harlowe]

Isn't that a tabloid paper Embar?

[Harlowe]

I know hindsight is 20/20, but damn when another country warns you about someone (Russia- 2 years ago), you'd think we would be keeping a very close eye on them. Maybe the FBI gets untold numbers of these warnings, I don't know, but if another country finds a person engaged in suspicious activities and feels compelled to warn us, surely it's worth some monitoring.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/0 ... story.html

Russian authorities warned the FBI in early 2011 that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have been a follower of “radical Islam,” a revelation that raised new questions in Congress on Saturday about whether the Boston Marathon attacks that killed three and wounded more than 170 could have been prevented.

A senior congressional aide privy to the Boston Marathon terror investigation confirmed Saturday that the FBI received the warning after Tsarnaev’s apparently suspicious activities caught the attention of Russian authorities keeping close surveillance on militant Islamist groups in the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union.

[Ddrak]

The FBI probably doesn't have the capacity (or maybe even the legal ability) to watch someone closely enough to figure out if they're making a pressure cooker bomb. If they do, that raises a whole new level of scary police state.

I don't think you can always stop this sort of thing in a free society. Obviously should do lessons learned and stuff, but may just have to chalk it up to the risk of freedom.

Dd

[Arathena]

The FBI probably doesn't have the capacity (or maybe even the legal ability) to watch someone closely enough to figure out if they're making a pressure cooker bomb. If they do, that raises a whole new level of scary police state.

I don't think you can always stop this sort of thing in a free society. Obviously should do lessons learned and stuff, but may just have to chalk it up to the risk of freedom.

Dd

Bingo, especially since most of what you need for a good solid bomb is either common commerical & domestic tools, plus a tiny bit of Second Amendment rights.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Isn't that a tabloid paper Embar?

Not sure, really.

I have heard/read there are two more in custody now, related to the bombing. These two are from Kazahkstan.

[Harlowe]

I checked, that's absolutely a tabloid paper Embar. As far as the other two in custody go, do you have any other info on that? All I read was they were questioning others.

I know another attack was thwarted (that was unrelated to this one) that we'll be hearing about soon.

[Harlowe]

This would not surprise me of the older brother...

http://www.newser.com/story/166655/tame ... urder.html