Boston bombing suspect Dzokher Tsarnaev seeks dead brother’s records
30 March 2014 11:19 PM GMT
The lawyers asked a judge on Friday to order federal prosecutors to turn over any FBI evidence related to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, hoping the defense can use it to build the case that he was the main instigator behind the deadly attack.
They say in court filings that if Dzhokhar is convicted, jurors could decide whether to give him life in prison or the death penalty based on how they perceive ‘the brothers’ relative responsibility for conceiving and carrying out the attacks.’ The lawyers believe the jury’s decision could rest on ‘the extent to which it views Tamerlan Tsarnaev as having induced or coerced his younger brother to help commit them.’ ‘For this reason,’ the defense argued, ‘any evidence tending to show that Tamerlan supplied the motivation, planning, and ideology behind the Boston Marathon attack, and that his younger brother acted under his domination is material... and is also subject to disclosure.’
The lawyers want records of all FBI contact with Tamerlan, based on information from the Tsarnaev family and unidentified other sources that the FBI asked Tamerlan to be an informant on the Chechen and Muslim communities. The Boston FBI office declined to comment on the claims made in the court filing but cited a statement released in October in which it said the Tsarnaev brothers were never sources for the FBI, ‘nor did the FBI attempt to recruit them as sources.’
Two explosions at the April 15 marathon killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Tamerlan, 26, died in a shootout with police four days after the attack. Dzhokhar, who was 19 at the time of the bombings, was captured soon after his brother’s death and has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction. More than half the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. His trial is scheduled to begin in November. Dzhokhar’s lawyers, in their filing, note that a report released this week by the House Homeland Security Committee suggests that government agents monitored Tamerlan and his communications during 2011 and possibly 2012.
They say in court filings that if Dzhokhar is convicted, jurors could decide whether to give him life in prison or the death penalty based on how they perceive ‘the brothers’ relative responsibility for conceiving and carrying out the attacks.’ The lawyers believe the jury’s decision could rest on ‘the extent to which it views Tamerlan Tsarnaev as having induced or coerced his younger brother to help commit them.’ ‘For this reason,’ the defense argued, ‘any evidence tending to show that Tamerlan supplied the motivation, planning, and ideology behind the Boston Marathon attack, and that his younger brother acted under his domination is material... and is also subject to disclosure.’
The lawyers want records of all FBI contact with Tamerlan, based on information from the Tsarnaev family and unidentified other sources that the FBI asked Tamerlan to be an informant on the Chechen and Muslim communities. The Boston FBI office declined to comment on the claims made in the court filing but cited a statement released in October in which it said the Tsarnaev brothers were never sources for the FBI, ‘nor did the FBI attempt to recruit them as sources.’
Two explosions at the April 15 marathon killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Tamerlan, 26, died in a shootout with police four days after the attack. Dzhokhar, who was 19 at the time of the bombings, was captured soon after his brother’s death and has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction. More than half the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty. His trial is scheduled to begin in November. Dzhokhar’s lawyers, in their filing, note that a report released this week by the House Homeland Security Committee suggests that government agents monitored Tamerlan and his communications during 2011 and possibly 2012.
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