[Content Note: Terrorism; violence; injury.]
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother of the pair who are believed to have bombed the Boston Marathon, killing three spectators and wounding nearly 300 others, and killed an MIT police officer, was charged yesterday afternoon in a bedside hearing at the hospital where he is still recovering from his injuries. During the hearing, a magistrate judge read D. Tsarnaev his rights and explained the charges against him. He will not be tried as an enemy combatant, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed yesterday: "We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice."
D. Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. Spencer Ackerman explains the WMD charge here.
If he is convicted, he could face the death penalty. The State of Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty, but this will be a federal trial, and federal statutes supersede state law. The feds don't have to seek the death penalty, but they can.
In other news, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died after a gunfight with police, after reportedly detonating a suicide vest and then being run over by his fleeing younger brother, has been identified as a potential suspect in an unsolved 2011 triple homicide of a former roommate and two others.
Finally: The New York Times interviews survivors about their experiences of being near the explosions.
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