Boston bombing suspect pleads not guilty
Source: Agencies |
July 12, 2013, Friday
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WEARING an orange prison jumpsuit, with his arm in a cast, accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded "not guilty" to committing the worst mass-casualty attack on US soil since 9/11, a crime that could bring him the death penalty.
Appearing in court for the first time, the 19-year-old ethnic Chechen - a naturalized US citizen - spoke clearly, answering seven times that he was "not guilty" and occasionally glancing back at the gallery.
Tsarnaev is charged with killing three people and injuring about 264 others by setting off homemade bombs - pressure-cookers filled with explosives, nails and ball bearings - assembled by him and his older brother, Tamerlan.
Prosecutors say the brothers placed backpacks containing the bombs among spectators near the finish line of the race on April 15.
Several days later, in the suburb of Watertown, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was killed in a shootout, during which 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after his brother ran over him with a car as he escaped. Dzhokhar was later found, badly wounded, hiding in a boat in a backyard.
Tsarnaev's appearance in the federal courtroom on Wednesday was his first in public since his arrest on April 19.
He fidgeted, scratched his face and looked around, watching prosecutors as they spoke and occasionally looking back at about 30 survivors of the attack and victims' families.
"He didn't seem affected one bit," said John DiFava, chief of the MIT police, who attended the proceeding.
Tsarnaev is also charged in the fatal shooting of police officer Sean Collier.
The biggest challenge for Tsarnaev's attorney, Miriam Conrad, will be sparing him the death penalty, observers said.
Security was tighter than usual outside Boston's US District Courthouse.
A handful of Tsarnaev supporters were present. "It was a little heartbreaking, but Dzhokhar and I have faith in Allah," said one supporter, Mary Churbuck, who wore a shirt with Dzhokhar's image and the slogan "Free the Lion."
According to court papers, Tsarnaev scrawled a note on an inside wall and beams of the boat in which he hid.
"The US Government is killing our innocent civilians," the note read, according to the papers. "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."
Prosecutors said the government planned to call between 80 and 100 witnesses and that the trial would likely last three to four months. A status hearing was scheduled for September 23.
Appearing in court for the first time, the 19-year-old ethnic Chechen - a naturalized US citizen - spoke clearly, answering seven times that he was "not guilty" and occasionally glancing back at the gallery.
Tsarnaev is charged with killing three people and injuring about 264 others by setting off homemade bombs - pressure-cookers filled with explosives, nails and ball bearings - assembled by him and his older brother, Tamerlan.
Prosecutors say the brothers placed backpacks containing the bombs among spectators near the finish line of the race on April 15.
Several days later, in the suburb of Watertown, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was killed in a shootout, during which 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after his brother ran over him with a car as he escaped. Dzhokhar was later found, badly wounded, hiding in a boat in a backyard.
Tsarnaev's appearance in the federal courtroom on Wednesday was his first in public since his arrest on April 19.
He fidgeted, scratched his face and looked around, watching prosecutors as they spoke and occasionally looking back at about 30 survivors of the attack and victims' families.
"He didn't seem affected one bit," said John DiFava, chief of the MIT police, who attended the proceeding.
Tsarnaev is also charged in the fatal shooting of police officer Sean Collier.
The biggest challenge for Tsarnaev's attorney, Miriam Conrad, will be sparing him the death penalty, observers said.
Security was tighter than usual outside Boston's US District Courthouse.
A handful of Tsarnaev supporters were present. "It was a little heartbreaking, but Dzhokhar and I have faith in Allah," said one supporter, Mary Churbuck, who wore a shirt with Dzhokhar's image and the slogan "Free the Lion."
According to court papers, Tsarnaev scrawled a note on an inside wall and beams of the boat in which he hid.
"The US Government is killing our innocent civilians," the note read, according to the papers. "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."
Prosecutors said the government planned to call between 80 and 100 witnesses and that the trial would likely last three to four months. A status hearing was scheduled for September 23.
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