Oct. 8
ILLINOIS:
Police Union Wants Alvarez To Review Landmark 1982 Double Murder Conviction
The Chicago police union has asked the Cook County State's Attorney's office to
examine a milestone double murder case, to see if the right man is behind bars.
WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports Anthony Porter had been on death row
after confessing to a 1982 double murder, and then freed in 1999, when another
man confessed to the crime.
Porter's case was a key factor in former Gov. George Ryan's decision to enact a
moratorium on capital punishment in 2000, and clear out death row 3 years
later. That decision ultimately led to Illinois abolishing the death penalty in
2011. The other man who confessed to the murders that put Porter on death row
was Alstory Simon, who has since said his own confession - to students and a
private investigator with Northwestern University's Innocence Project - was
coerced. Witnesses also have since recanted.
"If this was a wrongful conviction where a police officer was accused of
coercing a confession from somebody, it would be opened in a heartbeat," said
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden.
Camden said the FOP wants Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to take a
new look into the case.
"The bottom line becomes - justice needs to be served," Camden said.
The FOP sent a letter to Alvarez, saying "many police officers... believe
(Alstory) Simon is the wrong offender."
"His case needs to be reexamined," Camden said. "They've done it over and over
again on cases of alleged brutality and torture. They need to be able to do it
in this case as well."
(source: CBS news)
NEBRASKA:
Heineman calls for reforms to Nebraska's 'Good Time' la
Governor Dave Heineman is calling for reforms to the state's good time law, and
is remaining tough on his stance in favor of the death penalty.
Governor Heineman says the state needs a renewed focus on the death penalty,
and to not do away with it as some senators are suggesting.
Heineman says the death penalty is a just and appropriate in some violent
cases, and needs to stay.
The Governor is also calling for a reform to Nebraska's good time law-he says
violent offenders need to earn their good time, not just have it granted.
"Right now, if you're a violent offender, the moment you walk into prison, you
automatically receive it. You should have to earn it," Heineman said. "For
non-violent offenders I think we should proceed the way we are, but I think
most Nebraskans understand that for a violent criminal they need to earn good
time, it should be given to them automatically."
Last month, Senator Mello asked the governor to make corrections to the state's
correctional department.
(source: KOTA Territory News)
COLORADO:
6,000 to be called for Aurora theater shooting jury pool----Suspect James
Holmes' death penalty trial is expected to last three months after weeks of
jury selection.
Court officials plan to call 6,000 prospective jurors in the monthslong death
penalty trial of Aurora movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the face of 12 murder
counts from the summer 2012 shooting, and faces execution if jurors convict him
and then decide to apply the death penalty.
In a court hearing Monday, Holmes sat stoically in a red jail jumpsuit as the
judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys discussed logistics for the upcoming
trial. His dark brown hair slicked back on his head, an unshaven Holmes also
showed no reaction as officials from the state mental hospital handed over
sealed envelopes containing mental health records.
Holmes this summer was examined by state psychiatrists, whose reports are being
kept secret except from his defense team and prosecutors. Officials also turned
over mental-health records from the University of Colorado, from which he was
withdrawing when the shootings occurred.
Prospective jurors will be quizzed extensively about their perspectives on
mental illness and the death penalty. "It's no secret that's what this trial is
going to be about," Holmes' defense attorney Dan King said during court.
Judge Carlos Samour Jr. said the jury that will decide Holmes' fate will be 12
members - the standard number - with 12 alternates, to ensure an adequate
number should any jurors be excused during the trial. Prosecutors on Monday
said they expect the case to last at least 3 months, and that's only after
likely weeks of jury selection.
Acknowledging the disruption it will cause, Samour said the unusually large
pool is necessary to ensure Holmes gets a fair trial: "The last thing we want
to do is not have enough prospective jurors."
Prosecutor Karen Pearson argued that unusually extensive questioning of
prospective jurors is needed to "ferret ... out" people who want to serve on
the jury for personal or publicity reasons.
"There are people who may want to serve on this jury for what may be improper
reasons," she said.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys on Monday also argued briefly about the
admissibility of records from Match.com and Adult Friend Finder, which are
dating websites. Prosecutors on Monday said they learned from the website TMZ
that Holmes had made profiles on the 2 sites before the shootings. On one of
them, Holmes asked, "will you visit me in prison?" TMZ reported.
Prosecutors say they plan to use that language to show Holmes knew the
shootings were wrong, undercutting his insanity plea. Defense attorneys argue
Holmes expected some of his information on those sites to be kept private, and
that police improperly searched his iPhone to find them.
"When things are done in haste, mistakes are made," said Kristen Nelson, one of
Holmes' attorneys.
Samour did not rule on that aspect of the case Monday. Holmes is due back in
court Thursday for further proceedings.
(source: The Coloradoan)
NEW MEXICO:
Jury convicts Arizona inmate of capital murder in shooting deaths of retired
Oklahoma couple
The leader of a self-styled Bonnie and Clyde couple who staged a brazen prison
escape and a 3-week crime spree was convicted Monday of capital murder in the
gruesome slayings of a retired Oklahoma couple who crossed their path on an
eastern New Mexico highway.
John McCluskey was found guilty of murder, carjacking and other charges in the
August 2010 deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, who were
making their annual summer trek to Colorado.
The same jurors will return to decide whether McCluskey, 48, should be
sentenced to death or life in prison.
Hass family members, who sat through four weeks of testimony, showed little
emotion when the verdict was read.
Linda Rook, the younger sister of Gary Haas, called McCluskey's conviction on
20 counts good news.
Asked if she was relieved, Gary Haas's mother, Vivian Haas, said, "not enough."
"I think she is still hopeful for the final decision," Rook said of her
mother's guarded reaction. The family, she said, is waiting on the penalty
phase, when it will testify in support of a death sentence.
Attorneys declined comment, noting that the trial is ongoing as jurors have to
return for what is expected to be weeks of more testimony on whether McCluskey
should be executed.
McCluskey showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts were read. He was serving 15
years for attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a
firearm when he and two other prisoners escaped from a medium-security prison
near Kingman, Arizona, in July 2010 with the help of his cousin and fiancee,
Casslyn Welch.
One of the inmates was quickly captured after a shootout with authorities in
Colorado, while McCluskey, Welch and inmate Tracy Province headed to New
Mexico. Their escape and ensuing crimes sparked a nationwide manhunt and an
Interpol alert.
Province and Welch pleaded guilty last year to charges of carjacking resulting
in death, conspiracy, the use of a firearm during a violent crime and other
charges.
They both fingered McCluskey as the triggerman.
Province went his own way following the killings and was caught in Wyoming 7
days later. But Welch and McCluskey remained on the lam, drawing comparisons to
the legendary Bonnie and Clyde.
For the Haas family, the slayings marked just the beginning of three years of
tragedy. Vivian Haas, 83, lost her home in the Joplin, Missouri, tornado a year
later. Rook's husband died of cancer. And Gary and Linda's daughter was found
shot to death in Oklahoma this year. Her husband has been charged with murder.
"I think the stress was hard on all of us," Rook said.
The victims, who were high school sweethearts and recent retirees from General
Motors, were making their 11th summer trip to Colorado when they were killed 3
days after the prison break that Welch testified was funded by a drug smuggling
ring she and McCluskey ran for prison inmates.
Welch acknowledged throwing cutting tools onto the prison grounds. McCluskey,
Province and Daniel Renwick used the tools to break through a perimeter fence
and flee into the desert. Welch also supplied the men with guns and money, and
Renwick with a getaway vehicle.
While Renwick went his own way, the other 3 kidnapped a pair of truck drivers
and commandeered their rig until they reached McCluskey's ex-wife and persuaded
her to give them a ride to a getaway car at McCluskey's mother's house.
3 days later, tired and hot from driving a small car 1,000 miles with no air
conditioning, they set out to find a better vehicle. Testimony showed they
spotted the Haases at an eastern New Mexico highway rest stop. Within an hour,
the Haases were dead. Their charred remains were found among the wreckage of
their burned-out travel trailer on a remote ranch in eastern New Mexico.
The defense called no witnesses and sought to save their client from the
capital murder conviction by casting doubt on whether the killings were
premeditated. They also tried to undermine the testimony of Welch and Province,
saying they reached plea agreements to testify against McCluskey to save
themselves from possible execution.
Prosecutors contend that McCluskey intended to kill the Haases from the moment
he spotted them.
"He wanted that vehicle, he wanted to stay on the run. And the only way he
could do that was to ultimately eliminate the Haases," prosecutor Mike Warbel
said.
When he and Welch were finally captured at an Arizona camping ground, McCluskey
was wearing Gary Haas's John Deere cap.
"I just have to ask you guys: Who wears a dead man's hat?" prosecutor Greg
Fouratt said to the jury. "Is this some kind of trophy? Is this like a keepsake
or a memento? And doesn't that help you decide, as between the 3 of these
people, who was the one who ended Gary Haas' life?"
(source: Associated Press)
ARIZONA---impending execution
Court of Appeals rejects bid to delay Edward Schad's execution
aying he doesn't have a legal claim, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late
Monday rejected the bid by Edward Schad to delay his scheduled Wednesday
execution.
In an unsigned opinion, the judges rejected Schad's contention he should be
able to pursue his claim that Gov. Jan Brewer, through her aides, has unfairly
and illegally tainted the Board of Executive Clemency. The result, according to
his lawyers, is that current board members are unlikely to recommend clemency.
But the appellate court said there's no legal basis for them to even consider
the issue.
"The Supreme Court has never recognized a case in which clemency proceedings
conducted pursuant to a state's executive powers have implicated due process,"
the judges wrote.
At best, they said, an inmate might have claim if the clemency proceeding's
outcome is "wholly arbitrary, as would be the case if clemency were determined
by a coin toss."
Even looking closer at Schad's claims, the judges were not convinced that his
clemency hearing last week, where the board unanimously voted against any sort
of reprieve, was subject to gubernatorial tainting.
They noted that U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver, who had rebuffed
Schad's attempt to delay the clemency hearing - and, by extension, his
execution - found that the 3 members of the current board "testified credibly
that no pressure from the governor was ever exerted upon them to vote against
clemency." Nor were the appellate judges swayed by anything brought out by
former board members.
A former chairman claimed that Scott Smith, now the governor's chief of staff,
had called him for some "come to Jesus" meetings about some of the board's
prior recommendations, telling him Brewer did not want certain kinds of high
profile cases getting to her desk. Under Arizona law, a request for clemency
can reach the governor only if the board makes such a recommendation.
Other board members said they believe from their meetings with Smith that they
were not reappointed because of prior votes.
But the appellate judges also noted those same board members, in their
testimony, never said they had been instructed to vote in any particular way.
And the appellate court backed Silver's contention that the evidence about the
failure to reappoint the board members "was not sufficient to raise due process
concerns."
Schad is running out of options to escape being put to death Wednesday
following his conviction of the 1978 murder of Bisbee resident Lorimer Grove,
whose body was found near Prescott. At this point, it would take U.S. Supreme
Court intervention to stay the execution.
He had no better luck with a separate argument that he should once again be
able to argue that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel.
In that ruling, appellate Judge Mary Schroeder said Schad wants to argue this
time that his attorney failed at the time of sentencing to present evidence of
the effect that his childhood abuse had on his mental condition at the time he
committed the crime. Underlying that claim is the contention that evidence
might have spared him the death penalty.
But Schroeder said her court already considered - and rejected - Schad's
contention that his lawyer did not investigate child abuse. And the judge said
this new claim, while worded a bit different, "is essentially the same" as the
one he brought earlier.
That decision, however, was not unanimous. Judge Stephen Reinhardt said he
considers the question of Schad's mental illness at the time he committed the
crime "a new ineffective assistance of counsel claim."
The rebuff of Schad on his clemency board claim also effectively kills a
parallel bid by convicted murderer Robert Glen Jones Jr. who had intervened in
this case to make the same claim of a tainted board. Jones is set to be
executed later this month following his conviction of 6 murders in Tucson in
1996.
(source: East Valley Tribune)
***************************
US court denies appeals by AZ death row inmate
A federal appeals court and a federal court in Phoenix both have rejected
several appeals by an Arizona death row inmate scheduled to be executed
Wednesday.
A majority of active judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco declined Monday to rehear an appeal on behalf of Edward Schad and
also denied a request for a stay of execution pending a new clemency hearing.
U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver in Phoenix later ruled that there was
insufficient reason to grant Schad injunctive relief over questions concerning
the drug used in Arizona's executions.
Lawyers for the 71-year-old Schad were worried the state may have expired,
non-FDA approved drugs.
Schad faces a death sentence for the 1978 killing of 74-year-old Lorimer
"Leroy" Grove of Bisbee.
(source: Associated Press)
*********************
Vigil against the death penalty set
A local grassroots organization is hoping its vigil in Old Bisbee on Wednesday,
scheduled to coincide with the state execution of a man convicted of killing a
Bisbee resident, will inspire people to ruminate on Arizona's use of capital
punishment.
"What we're just trying to do, we want to provoke questions. We think that's
what grassroots is all about," said Mimi Ferraro, a member of The Seven
Generations Peace Alliance.
On that day, Edward Schad is scheduled to be executed for the killing of
74-year-old Lorimer "Leroy" Grove, a former Bisbee resident, in August, 1978.
Schad, now 71, was convicted of killing Grove at trial in 1985, though he has
maintained his innocence.
Ferraro said the alliance is concerned with the number of executions being
performed in the state.
"I think we need to ask questions about why we're doing this. As a western
nation, we're one of the few that still do," she said.
In 2011, Arizona tied for the 2nd most executions of any state with 4, along
with Ohio and Alabama, according to the newspaper The Guardian's study of data
from Amnesty International and the Death Penalty Information Center.
Grove was last seen leaving Bisbee in a Cadillac that was pulling a trailer on
his way to visit his sister in Washington state. Eight days later, his body was
found south of Prescott in the underbrush off the shoulder of Highway 89.
Schad was arrested a month later in Utah after authorities said he drove
Grove???s car across the country, using his credit cards and forging checks
from the victim's account.
The Seven Generations Peace Alliance has held events throughout southern
Cochise County this year, protesting in an effort to raise awareness about
causes they care about, such as drone strikes and military action in Syria.
The vigil against the death penalty is scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at
Goar Park in Brewery Gulch, just south of the Stock Exchange.
(source: Sierra Vista Herald)
**********************
Arias attorneys seek to bar live coverage of trial
Jodi Arias has sought the spotlight at every turn, granting numerous national
television interviews from behind bars, and even during her trial.
Now facing a retrial to determine her sentence, Arias' lawyers are asking a
judge to bar live TV coverage from inside the courtroom.
The irony isn't lost on prosecutors and a lawyer representing CNN.
The news network's attorney, David Bodney, told a judge during a hearing Friday
that the public shouldn't be deprived the opportunity to view the trial simply
"because someone can't control her own speech."
Arias was convicted of murder May 8 in the 2008 death of boyfriend Travis
Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. The same jury failed to reach a
decision on whether she should get the death penalty, setting the stage for a
2nd penalty phase.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Alameda County Is 9th in Nation for Death Row Inmates----A report looks at the
geography of capital punishment and finds a disparity between northern and
southern Alameda County.
A new report looking at the uneven geographic distribution of capital
punishment shows Alameda County is 9th in the nation and 4th in California when
it comes to condemning people to death row.
At the start of 2013, there were 43 people sentenced to die from Alameda
County, according to the report released Wednesday by theDeath Penalty
Information Center. The report found that even as death sentences and
executions grow rarer in the United States, two percent of counties account for
52 % of all executions since 1976 and 56 percent of all condemned inmates.
The report argues that aggressive prosecutors in these counties shift the
financial burdens of capital punishment to all taxpayers, who are usually
unaware of the huge costs that follow a death sentence.
While California has the highest number of people on death row, the state has
executed only 16 people since capital punishment was restored in 1978. Since
1976, 82 % of all executions have been in the South, with Texas accounting for
nearly 1/2 of those.
The North-South divide exists in Alameda County as well. The report noted an
article published this year by a law professor at the University of San
Francisco showing how prosecutors in Alameda County were more likely to seek
the death penalty when the crime was committed in parts of the county where
whites were the majority.
Steven Shatz studied 1st-degree murder convictions in Alameda County from 1978
to 2001 and concluded that prosecutors were less likely to pursue death
sentences, and juries were less likely to impose death, when the murder
occurred in neighborhoods with black majorities.
Shatz and his co-author argue that their findings should support constitutional
challenges to capital punishment.
(source: Alameda Patch)
******************
Jury: Death for man who murdered widow, 8----For the unimaginable "agony and
terror" Bessie Whyman must have felt, Anthony Wade "forfeited the right to
live," prosecutor said. Defense lawyers begged for mercy.
A man showed no emotion Monday when an Orange County jury recommended the death
penalty for the rape, torture and murder of an 84-year-old widow after breaking
into her Anaheim home in 2010.
The Superior Court jury of 7 women and 5 men after a day and a half of
deliberations agreed with Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh that Anthony
Darnell Wade's crimes were "so devoid of humanity, so barbaric, so horrendous"
that he deserved the maximum penalty.
Background
Who: Anthony Darnell Wade, 29, of Los Angeles.
What: Indicted April 2010 on 1 felony count of murder, including murder in the
commission of rape, robbery, burglary and murder with torture. He was also
indicted on 1 felony count each of elder abuse, 1st-degree robbery, 1st-degree
residential burglary, torture, forcible rape, the unlawful taking of a vehicle
and sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a deadly weapon and causing
great bodily injury to an elder.
Found guilty on all counts by an Orange County jury Sept. 6, 2013.
Punishment: The same panel decided Monday that Wade deserves the death penalty.
Wade is the 4th death-penalty trial of 2013 in Orange County.
Next: Nov. 12 sentencing by Superior Court Judge James Stotler.
(source: Orange County Register)
******************
Man who ambushed deputies Haugen, Lehmann commits suicide in San Quentin
The man who was on death row for ambushing and killing 2 Riverside County
sheriff's deputies in 1997 committed suicide this weekend while at San Quentin
State Prison, authorities say.
Timothy Russell, 53, was found unconscious in his prison cell late Friday, Oct,
4, according California state prison officials. He was pronounced dead at 12:48
a.m. Saturday.
Prison officials are investigating the death as a suicide. Russell was alone in
his cell.
He had been on death row at San Quentin since Jan. 14, 1999, following his
conviction and sentencing for the murders of deputies James Lehmann Jr., 41, of
Apple Valley and Michael Haugen, 33, of San Jacinto.
Russell ambushed Haugen and Lehmann in the early-morning hours Jan. 5, 1997, as
they responded to a domestic violence call at Russell's remote desert home in
the Whitewater area west of Palm Springs.
Russell's estranged wife had run to a neighbor's house and called 911 to report
he had struck and kicked her.
As the deputies arrived, Russell fired a dozen shots from an M-1 carbine
semi-automatic rifle. Both deputies were killed before they could draw their
weapons or even see Russell.
In a pre-sentencing report, Russell said he tried to fire his gun in front of
the deputies to scare them so he could escape and avoid jail. He said he never
saw the deputies fall to the ground.
Following the shooting, Russell surrendered to deputies and led detectives to
his gun. Haugen was survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and 2 children. Lehmann
was survived by wife Valerie and 4 children.
Russell appealed his conviction in 2004 and again in 2010. His attorneys
challenged the lying in wait charge - which clinched the death penalty -
contending that he didn't have enough time to prepare his attack.
The California Supreme Court struck down his appeal, noting that Russell made
threats to respond to police with deadly force. He loaded a rifle and fired it
at the 2 deputies, showing he was prepared for the ambush.
Valerie Lehmann, wife of slain sheriff's Deputy James Lehmann, testifies during
during the penalty phase of the murder trial where Timothy Russell was
convicted of murdering 2 sheriff's deputies.
He appealed the decision again in 2011 by filing a writ of habeas corpus with
the state Supreme Court.
On Monday, Senior Assistant Attorney General Ronald Matthias notified the court
that Russell had died.
California has a pending moratorium on executions while the death penalty
protocol is being litigated in federal court. The last execution carried out
was in 2006.
Voters defeated a ballot measure last year to abolish the death penalty.
When executions resume, Riverside County inmate Albert Greenwood Brown is the
next in line. He killed a Riverside schoolgirl whose body was found in an
orange grove in 1982.
Brown's execution was stayed in 2010 after a federal court of appeals ruled the
drugs used for lethal injection had expired.
(source: Press-Enterprise)
USA:
ABA president to tackle 'broken US legal system'----Despite the US's 1.2m
lawyers, there is still a great legal need among the poor, immigrants and those
on death row, says Jim Silkenat
Jim Silkenat plans to recruit US law school graduates, on a modest wage, to
help those who cannot get access to justice.
Jim Silkenat is a corporate attorney in New York. He knows that the US has
1,268,011 licensed lawyers - far more than any other country. He believes that
is too few.
Silkenat, who has just been elected president of the American Bar Association
(ABA), warns that there is an enormous unmet legal need among those who cannot
afford to pay: the under-privileged, detained immigrants and defendants
fighting to escape death row.
His plan is to recruit the latest generation of graduates streaming out of
American law schools who cannot find work immediately in a law firm. Silkenat
intends to harness their skills, for a modest wage, to help those who cannot
get access to justice.
The idea of a Legal Access Jobs Corps is one that the former counsel at the
World Bank believes could be developed in the US and other countries where the
same problem is emerging: not enough public funds for society's increasingly
complex legal demands.
On a visit to London to attend the formal opening of the new legal year,
Silkenat told the Guardian there was much in common between the "underfunding
of the justice system both [in Britain] and in the USA".
He said: "Many students are coming out of law school and can't find a place as
a lawyer. So let's bring them into the jobs corps where at some pay they can
start at legal access work.
"So we are going to find best practices and try and develop something
affordable. We can solve all of the access problems. Now we have to deliver.
"There are not enough lawyers because there's extraordinary unmet legal need.
We may have misallocated [our lawyers]. But access to justice is so poor that
we need more help. We need more help with death penalty cases. People need
access to legal advice and we are trying to explore every means to alleviate
that problem."
Among those often left unrepresented, Silkenat said, were suspects caught up in
the US immigration system. "We have a broken system," he said. "We don't treat
people fairly. Partly it's a question of cost. Everyone should have acces to a
lawyer in the immigration system.
"It's not a criminal system but in most cases people are housed and treated as
though they were criminals. That would be part of [the work carried out by] the
legal access corps."
Some US states require lawyers to carry out a certain amount of free, or
pro-bono, work on behalf of clients or defendants. Others are exploring
imposing mandatory reporting of pro-bono work every year when a lawyer's
licence is renewed.
Well-paid lawyers have traditionally been reluctant to take on death penalty
cases because they last for so many years and the defendants cannot afford to
pay high fees.
"We need really competent lawyers in those cases," Silkenat explained. "Some of
the cases run for a year and require an extraordinary amount of money."
(source: The Guardian)
**********************
Defense team requests records before presentation to Holder
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused Boston Marathon bomber, repeatedly requested a
lawyer when he was being questioned at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
following his arrest in Watertown, according to court documents filed Monday in
federal court in Boston.
What took place after the requests remains unclear, and lawyers for Tsarnaev
have asked a judge to order prosecutors to turn over any records about what
happened as a result of the requests, including e-mail exchanges between law
enforcement officials, saying they could be used in Tsarnaev's defense. He was
arrested on Friday, April 19, but he was not appointed lawyers and did not see
a judge until that following Monday.
"It is not known whether Mr. Tsarnaev's requests for counsel from his hospital
bed were ever communicated to the court," his lawyers said in a filing made
Monday, adding that they would want to look into whether any information from
the "interrogation of Mr. Tsanaev tainted the recovery of other evidence."
The defense team is seeking the information and other records as it prepares to
make a presentation to US Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. in opposition to the
death penalty. Holder will decide whether to seek the death penalty, and will
consider arguments from the prosecution and defense.
Prosecutors have refused to turn over some of the information the defense is
seeking. The prosecutors have said in court that they are required to follow
only evidence rules for a trial and are not required to aid the defense in its
death penalty presentation.
Tsarnaev's lawyers also asked for, among other records, information related to
interviews with Tsarnaev's friends and family members, as well as any records
related to law enforcement surveillance of and interviews with Tsarnaev's older
brother, Tamerlan, before the bombings. The FBI was reportedly contacted by
Russian authorities who suspected Tamerlan of possible terrorism activity.
Tamerlan was killed in a gun battle in Watertown days after the bombings.
The defense team is also seeking records related to the FBI interview of
Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamerlan and a suspect in a Waltham triple
murder, who was later shot and killed by an FBI agent.
(source: Boston Globe)
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