Filling In The Gaps
There are a lot reports coming to fill out the picture of the Tsarnaev brothers.
Their parents are divorced, and the father returned to Russia after the divorce.
They have a sister who is married to a policeman in Chechnya, which is the connection the aunt was talking about in her interview.
Tamerlan has an American wife and daughter, who are now at her parents’ home in Rhode Island. She is a home healthcare aide and has been putting 70+ hour weeks, while Tamerlan was supposedly caring for their daughter.
The mother says that she introduced Tamerlan to the Koran and Islam to calm him down after he got into trouble a few years ago. Tamerlan convinced his wife to convert to Islam.
The FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] asked the FBI to interview Tamerlan after they discovered supposedly radical videos being linked to on his YouTube page.
Jokhar was arraigned on both state and Federal charges from his hospital bed today and will have public defenders appointed. The Federal charges carry the death penalty, as expected. Massachusetts doesn’t have the death penalty.
I don’t see this going to trial, there is too much hard evidence for a competent defense attorney not to counsel a plea bargain. That said it is highly unlikely that Jokhar will ever be eligible for release.
4 comments
So now we know how Tamerlan got his money, he got it the old fashioned way, his wife earned it for him. I can just imagine how much that pi**ed him off, having to rely on his wife for subsistence. Jokhar was probably being subsidized by parental money, going to school and all. No mysteries here, no terrorist organizations supporting them, move along.
Jokhar’s proper place is prison for life. Anybody who has displayed the ability to take a human life without hesitation and without remorse is too dangerous to walk around on the streets. Hopefully the prosecutor will allow that plea rather than going political and grandstanding for the death penalty.
The Repubs are already having a fit because he wasn’t shipped off to Gitmo for the rack to find out nothing worth knowing, so I assume that it will at least initially be a death penalty case. The minimum offer should be life for a guilty plea, but this has gotten political already, so who knows if common sense will take charge. Finding somewhere for a jury trial is going to be a problem, especially if they try to hold a trial outside of Massachusetts. A plea deal with full disclosure of evidence is the best way to go.
Any competent defense attorney would look at the circus that happened around the events in Boston and throw up her hands in despair at the thought of finding an impartial jury. You’re right, a plea bargain would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, our current political system is also brainless. Hrmph.
I am confident that the defense attorneys for both the state and the Federal charges have already prepared their change of venue motions and will file them at their first opportunity. If they file for bail I would be surprised, because he is much safer in custody. On the street some whacko will try to take him out for the celebrity.
As a prosecutor I would argue that the media coverage was so consistently wrong and at odds with reality, that the case presented in court will be totally different than what people think they know.
The Repubs need to shut their mouths about immigration and foreigners or the prosecutor may lose the owner of the SUV who is the best witness for tying the brothers to the bombing. There are rumors that the Feds are working overtime to extend his visa. The Feds could lose this case if the Congress doesn’t shut up and go back to what they are good at = raking in
bribesehrr … campaign contributions.