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WASHINGTON (AP) — The focus of the Boston Marathon bombing trial figures to be as much on what punishment Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could face as on his responsibility for the attack. With testimony expected to start later this month, the Justice Department has given no indication it is open to any proposal from the defense to spare Tsarnaev's life, pushing instead toward a trial that could result in a death sentence for the 21-year-old defendant. In a deadly terror case that killed three people, including a child, and jolted the city, there may be little incentive for prosecutors who believe they...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, thin and pale, arrived in court Monday looking like the college student he was before he was accused of bombing the Boston Marathon... ...Judge O’Toole told prospective jurors that picking a jury could take up to three weeks, with opening statements possibly starting Jan. 26... ...Mr. Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to a 30-count indictment against him, including 17 counts that carry the death penalty. If the jury finds him guilty on even one of those counts, it must then decide whether to sentence him to life in prison or to death... ... on Monday, he proceeded...

The defense also called former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis to testify for Phillipos. Dukakis, an old family friend of Phillipos' mother, described a phone conversation he had with Phillipos five days after the bombings. Dukakis said Phillipos told him he had been questioned by the FBI for five hours, but was so confused he didn't remember what he said.

BOSTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Former governor of Massacheusetts and 1988 Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis took the stand in Boston to testify on behalf of a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Robel Phillipos stands accused of lying to the FBI and local law enforcement about his actions and wherabouts in the three days following the attack that killed three an injured more than 260 people. "[Phillipos] told me he was questioned for five hours by the FBI," Dukakis testified according to the Boston Globe, adding, "he was so confused he didn't know what he said."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s attorneys, who appear to be crafting a defense based around casting the older brother as a bullying mastermind of the Boston operation, renewed their push for evidence on Friday arguing the government had previously said the case was “might be relevant if Dzhokhar were aware of it.” They then pointed to a letter they received from prosecutors on Aug. 15, 2014, saying the government had a witness prepared to testify that “Dzhokhar had such an awareness.” The developments come just days before both sides are scheduled to release their initial list of witnesses in the bombings trial, which...

When it was revealed that the Boston Marathon bombers attended a Cambridge, Mass., mosque, its leaders were quick to disavow their actions. Elder brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s ideology was not their own, the leaders of the Islamic Society mosque claimed. In fact, he was admonished for an extremist outburst he made during one sermon. So, one crackpot in a congregation. Who can blame the mosque? But what about eight — including a prominent member of ISIS? As it turns out, worshippers at the Islamic Society have included: Abdurahman Alamoudi, the mosque’s founder and first president who in 2004 was sentenced to...

Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote a note declaring “we Muslims are one body” as he emerged from the boat where he had hidden from investigators, according to a report based on court documents.

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev say FBI agents violated their client’s rights by questioning him after he asked for a lawyer 10 times from his hospital bed. The L.A. Times reports the 20-year-old suspect was in pain, according to defense attorneys who also said authorities had determined there was no lingering threat to public safety went they interrogated him in April 2013.

A dramic video about the First Russian-Chechen War.

Regarding the Boston Bombing and the Bundy Ranch invasion: The nation is getting a wake-up call. Bombs and gun battles in the streets. Heavily armed federal police forces declaring martial law and locking down neighborhoods and huge swaths of land in desert communities. Heavily armed federal land "management" and forest "service" agencies using military grade weapons and tactics to collect civil "debts" and threatening to "shoot" innocent men, women and children who get in their way. And then corrupt U.S. mob senators who are in on the take and who are perpetrating the destruction of America have the audacity to...

Barefoot and wearing a black veil, the man dropped a large backpack shortly before being apprehended by police. The area is on high alert as commemorations for the victims of last year's bombing are underway Tuesday. The area around the Boston Marathon finish line has been evacuated as cops investigate two suspicious backpacks left along Boylston Street. Ceremonies throughout the day commemorated the victims on the one year anniversary of the bombing at the site that killed three and injured more than 260 people. Around 7 p.m., a barefoot man wearing a black veil and yelling “Boston Strong!” as he...

RickLeventhalFoxNews        ✔ @RickLeventhal VP Biden: "my god, u have survived & u have soared. it was worth, it was worth it. i mean this sincerely, just to hear each of u speak." 3:47 PM - 15 Apr 2014

New York (AFP) - Russia declined to provide the FBI with information about one of the Boston marathon bombing suspects two years before the attack, The New York Times reported. Three people were killed and about 260 wounded on April 15 last year when two bombs made of explosives-packed pressure cookers went off near the finish line of the marathon. US authorities are seeking the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, then 19, for his alleged role in the blasts. His brother Tamerlan, 26, died after an exchange of fire with police after the Chechen Muslim brothers went on the run,...

Nearly one year after they were both seriously injured in the Boston Marathon attack, Rebekah Gregory and Pete DiMartino were married on Friday, following many tough months of recovery. The couple said 'I do' on a 19th-century estate in North Carolina, with the bride slowly walking down the aisle using a special crutch for her left leg, which may soon be amputated due to the severity of her wounds. She was guided by her father, Tim, and son Noah, six, down a bed of pink-and yellow-hued rose petals to her awaiting groom, NBC News reported. Sniffles were heard throughout the...

The F.B.I. agent who fatally shot a Chechen man in Orlando during an interrogation in May about the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has been cleared of wrongdoing by a prosecutor in Florida and by an F.B.I. internal review, according to law enforcement officials.Another review, by the Justice Department, which is almost complete, is expected to conclude that the agent followed proper guidelines on the use of force when he killed the Chechen, Ibragim Todashev, according to the officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to jeopardize their access to classified information.None of the...

months before atrocity -- as disturbing video emerges of jihad flag on wall of her homeThe widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev cozies up to the terrorist’s mother on a trip to see her in her homeland months before the marathon massacre, in an exclusive photograph obtained by MailOnline. In the family photo captioned Kyrgyzstan 2013, Katherine Russell, 24, is holding the daughter she had with Tsarnaev, who was killed during a shootout with police days after he and his brother Dhzokhar allegedly detonated two pressure cooker bombs along the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. The...

U.S. counter-terrorism officials are attempting to track down a female friend of the accused Boston Marathon bomber after she traveled to Chechnya last year and is believed to have since posted "alarming" jihadi imagery online, officials told ABC News. Officials are concerned that Heda Umarova, 23, may have been radicalized to Islamist violence -- allegedly just like her friend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged in the April 15 bombings, and his brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a police shootout -- and could pose a threat to Americans overseas because her U.S. passport allows easy foreign travel. Umarova left Boston with her...

BOSTON (AP) — An FBI agent overheard Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev make a "statement to his detriment" when his sister visited him in prison, federal prosecutors said Friday. Prosecutors did not reveal what Tsarnaev said, but they objected to what they called an attempt by Tsarnaev's lawyers to suppress the statement.... [snip] Tsarnaev, 20, has pleaded not guilty in the terrorist attack at last year's marathon. Two pressure cooker bombs were placed near the marathon finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 260.... [snip] Tsarnaev's lawyers say the presence of the FBI agent during prison visits...

Of all the reasons to oppose the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he is found guilty of the Boston Marathon terror bombings, none is less convincing than the claim that executing the murderer of Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu, Martin Richard, and Sean Collier would amount to rewarding him. Seek Tsarnaev's death and you give him just what he craves, runs this argument, which has been made by law professor Alan Dershowitz, criminologist James Alan Fox, and death-penalty critics in the media. Executing Tsarnaev will succeed only in making him a martyr and a hero, they say; it will drive...

From 60 Minutes last night: Susan Rice: Lesley, it’s been worth what we’ve done to protect the United States. And the fact that we have not had a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11 should not be diminished. But that does not mean that everything we’re doing as of the present ought to be done the same way in the future.