Death penalty threat for Boston bombing suspect

Tsarnaev charged at bedside with using weapon of mass destruction

The teenage suspect in the Boston bombings faces a possible death penalty after he was charged at his hospital bed yesterday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in an attack that horrified America and caused the deaths of three people and injured nearly 200.


The charges were announced a week after the two devices were detonated close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

A magistrate judge read the charges to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the younger of two brothers suspected in the bombing, as he lay seriously injured with gunshot wounds to his head, neck, legs and hand at Beth Israel Deaconess hospital in Boston. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gun battle with police after a chase through the streets of the city.

“Although our investigation is ongoing, today’s charges bring a successful end to a tragic week for the city of Boston and for our country,” said the attorney general, Eric Holder.

The US attorney for Massachusetts, Carmen Oritz, said the impact of the crimes had been “far-reaching, affecting a worldwide community that is looking for peace and justice”.

The charges, revealed in the US district court in Massachusetts, include one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction – an improvised explosive device or improvised explosive device – against persons and property within the United States resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device, resulting in death.

“The statutory charges authorise a penalty, upon conviction, of death or imprisonment for life or any term of years,” the US justice department said.

According to the criminal complaint, which refers to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as Bomber Two, video footage shows him stopping in front of the Forum restaurant and dropping his backpack to the ground. He then is seen to use his mobile phone, finishing the call just seconds before the first explosion.

“Virtually every head turns to the east (towards the finish line) and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm,” the complaint says. “Bomber Two, virtually alone among the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm.”

Tsarnaev, according to the complaint, then moved rapidly to the west. Ten seconds later, the second blast occurred at the spot where he left his bag. “I can discern nothing in that location in the period before the explosion might have caused that explosion, other than Bomber Two’s knapsack,” wrote Daniel Genck, the FBI special agent in whose name the complaint is filed.

Dzhokhar, a naturalised US citizen and resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, escaped authorities on Thursday after the shootout that left his elder brother dead. He was captured in a boat on Friday evening after a lockdown in the city.

The complaint offers chilling new details of the carjacking that began Thursday night’s dramatic chase and shootout. The victim, who is not named in the complaint, said that when one of the suspects got into his car, he pointed a gun and said: “Did you hear about the Boston explosion? ... I did that.” He then removed the magazine from the gun to show the victim there was a bullet in it, adding: “I am serious.”

Shortly before the charges were announced, the White House said Tsarnaev would be tried in the US civilian court system, despite pressure from Republicans for him to be treated as an enemy combatant in the “war on terror”. White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We have a long history here of successfully prosecuting terrorists and bringing them to justice and the president fully believes that the process will work in this case.”

Carney said the decision was taken by Holder and supported by Barack Obama’s national security advisers. “We had no choice under the law,” said Carney. “He is a US citizen.”

The Tsarnaevs’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, has said he will fly from Russia to the US to seek “justice and the truth”. His wife, Zubeida Tsarnaeva, told journalists yesterday that the family would try to bring Tamerlan’s body back to Russia.

In addition to the federal charges, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is likely to face state charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier.

In Massachusetts yesterday, Governor Deval Patrick asked residents to observe a moment of silence at 2.50pm, the time the first of the two bombs exploded.

The first funeral of a victim took place yesterday. Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant worker, was one of three killed in the explosions. A memorial service was due to be held last night at Boston University for 23-year-old Lu Lingzi, a graduate student from China, who also died. Two very disparate commentators, Ali Abunimah and Alan Dershowitz, have raised serious questions about a claim that has been made over and over about the Boston bombing – namely, that this was an act of terrorism. Dershowitz, citing the lack of knowledge about motive, said: “It’s not even clear under the federal terrorist statutes that it qualifies as an act of terrorism.” Abunimah questioned whether the bombing fits the US government’s definition of terrorism, noting that “no evidence has emerged that the suspects acted ‘in furtherance of political or social objectives’” or that their alleged act was “intended to influence or instigate a course of action that furthers a political or social goal”.

Over the last two years, the US has witnessed at least three other episodes of mass, indiscriminate violence: the Tuscon shooting by Jared Loughner in which 19 people were shot, six of whom died; the Aurora shooting by James Holmes in which 70 people were shot, 12 of whom died; and the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting by Adam Lanza in which 26 people (20 of whom were children) were killed. The word “terrorism” was almost never used in those cases, and none of the perpetrators was charged with terror-related crimes.

In the Boston case, however, the opposite dynamic prevails. Particularly since the identity of the suspects was revealed, the word “terrorism” is being used by virtually everyone, including Obama, who initially refrained from using it. But as Abunimah notes, there is no evidence that either suspect was involved with any designated terrorist organisation.

More significantly, there is no known evidence about their motives. All we really know is that they identified as Muslim, and that the older brother allegedly watched extremist YouTube videos and was suspected by the Russians of religious extremism ( by contrast, virtually everyone who knew the younger brother has said that he never evinced extremism).

It’s possible that it will turn out that, if they are guilty, their motive was political or religious. But it’s also possible that it wasn’t: that it was some combination of mental illness, alienation, or other forms of apolitical instability and rage.