What about the citizens of Boston?:
Posted on 04/22/2013 12:15:05 PM PDT by Mozilla
heBlaze’s Jon Seidl and Becket Adams contributed to this report.
The White House has announced how it plans to deal with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, the 19-year-old alleged terrorist “will not be treated as an enemy combatant.” The government’s official complaint was also released today (embedded below).
“We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilians system of justice,” Carney told reporters. ”Under U.S. law, United States citizens cannot be tried in military commissions.”
The information was announced this afternoon, just one week after the horrific terror attack unfolded. The reasoning for the designation is that American citizens cannot be tried through military commissions.
“There is not an alternative for a U.S. citizen to be tried by a military commission,” he added.
The Washington Post has more about the charges filed against Dzhokhar:
Federal authorities Monday charged the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings with using a “weapon of mass destruction” against people and property, and the White House rejected demands by some congressional Republicans that he be tried before a military tribunal as an “enemy combatant.”
The Justice Department said Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. It said he is “specifically charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (namely, an improvised explosive device or IED) 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 department said in a news released that the bombings resulted in the death of three people and injuries to more than 200 others.
During today’s press conference Carney went on to say that the “entire national security team” supports the decision and that the matter was decided by the U.S. Department of Justice, which Attorney General Eric Holder oversees.
After reporters questioned the decision not to read Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, Carney cited a “public safety exemption,” although he did not tie it directly to this case. It seems Carney was merely making the point that there are times in which it is appropriate, as per the exemption, to withhold Miranda rights.
Tsarnaev was charged from his hospital bed today. The announcement comes as U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the prosecutor handling the case, is gaining media attention as well. Reuters notes that she is known for being “tough to a fault” by critics and for “coming down too hard on some defendants.”
This, of course, may be a benefit in this case, though, for those who believe that the suspect should be held to the highest levels of scrutiny.
“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,” Holder said in a statement issued this afternoon.
Dzhokhar could face the death penalty for his alleged actions.
Yeah, it's not like he was a Tea Partier or a Pro-Life activist.
How was McVeigh charged?
After all, prisoners have rights ~ one of them is to not be locked up with a cannibal. One of the others is to not be locked up with a mad bomber who blows children to pieces.
Sorry our judges and politicians aren't as advanced as prisoners in their understanding of justice.
It’s pretty simple. Try for treason, strip of American citizenship then off to gitmo or firing squad.
I wonder if they Mirandized him before they started questioning him. If not (as they said they wouldn’t), then any confession he made will not be admissible.
I have to say, I do agree that American citizens should not be tried as enemy combatants. However, he should be tried for Treason.
What year was that?
The criminal path leads to Saudi Arabia AND
the White House.
The DO”J” MUST insure that the path is NEVER followed.
FMCDH(BITS)
Carney called an Islamic terrorist a terrorist??? Someone's gonna get a strongly worded memo!
What about the citizens of Boston?:
1995.
‘95 or ‘96
That is the correct way to do it, the constitutional way!
“How was McVeigh charged?”
Not as an enemy combatant. Citizens should not be charged as such, it’s a slippery slope. At some point, just anyone the party in power doesn’t like, who commits a large scale, or even small scale crime based on political beliefs, will be charged as an enemy combatant and tortured. I think this is the right move from a Constitutional perspective.
According to Wikipedia,
-PJ
Three hots and an air-conditioned cot for life, coutesy of Uncle Sugar.
I, for one, don’t want any Gov’t official having the power to decide if a particular crime warrants stripping someone of their rights as an American citizen.
The fact is these Chechen swine should have never been allowed into the country in the first place, but our PC, leftist Gov’t stupidly gave them American citizenship, so now we deal with them as American citizens.
“I wonder if they Mirandized him before they started questioning him. If not (as they said they wouldn’t), then any confession he made will not be admissible.”
Exactly. The other interesting issue that will be raised by the Fed Defenders in his case will be the fact that this public safety exception has never been imposed this far out. In other words, I think 48 hours is the longest they have pushed it. With this guy’s medical status, they are really pushing it. I think it’s better to simply Mirandize him so they can use it against him. Barring that, just don’t ask him anything beyond, “are there more explosives besides these that we found?”
He shouldn’t be charged as an enemy combatant. He is the enemy, but he’s a citizen.
Sorry, we don’t want to start a precedent of the White House/Congress/arm chair lawyers, deciding which U.S. citizens should become an enemy of the state. Today it could be a Muslim/Chechen, but tomorrow it could be a Christian/Texan.
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