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Boston Marathon Bombing Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 31, 2020 52 Comments
The Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has vacated the death penalty against Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ordering a new penalty phase trial. The Court also reversed the underlying convictions on several relatively-minor gun possession counts.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 16, 2019 31 Comments
It has now been 5 years since our Editor Mandy Nagy suffered a catastrophic stroke at the young age of 45. On Sunday, September 7, 2014, I received an email from Mandy's mom, Ginny, directed to the "contact" email address:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2018 106 Comments
One thing that we know for a certainty about the "suspicious packages" sent to various Democrat political figures is that we don't know a lot of actual facts, and many facts reported in the media will turn out to be wrong. It happens every time, including after the Newtown school shooting and Boston Marathon bombing, as I wrote back in April 2013, At Boston Marathon as in Newtown, initial media reports almost entirely wrong.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 13, 2018 18 Comments
Daniel Frisiello, the man who allegedly sent envelopes containing white powder to Donald Trump Jr. earlier this month, has been freed from jail while he waits for his trial by a Massachusetts judge. Vanessa Trump, wife of Donald Trump Jr., was rushed to a hospital after opening the envelope. Frisiello is confined to his home and prohibited from using the internet and from mailing anything.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 15, 2016 7 Comments
Monday is Patriots Day in Massachusetts, the third Monday in April on which the Boston Marathon is run. The holiday commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Three Patriots Days ago, on April 15, 2013, Islamic terrorists bombed the Boston Marathon. I don't remember where I was when I first heard of it. But I do remember covering it. Here is a look back. At 3:06 p.m. I turned the first post live.

Explosions at Boston Marathon finish line

Reports coming in of explosions near the finish line at the Boston Marathon. Live coverage at Fox 25 (no embed available) Serious injuries — (warning on link, gruesome) missing arms and legs (warning on link, gruesome) according to eyewitness interviewed on television. (Update — latest reports are two dead, 20+ injured…. NY Post reports 12 dead)

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 27, 2016 13 Comments
Mason Wells is an American Mormon missionary who has now survived the Boston Marathon attack, the Paris terror attack, and the Brussels attack. For years to come, he'll be featured in listicles about amazing coincidences. The New York Post reports:
American who survived Brussels, Paris and Boston terror says he’s ‘lucky’ A 19-year-old Mormon missionary emerged unscathed from the Boston Marathon bombings and Paris attacks — but wasn’t as lucky in Brussels, where he suffered severe burns and other injuries.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 15, 2015 27 Comments
Jurors finally reached consensus in the sentencing of Boston Marathon Bomber Jahar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death. According to the Associated Press:
BOSTON (AP) — A jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death Friday for the Boston Marathon bombing, sweeping aside pleas that he was just a "kid" who fell under the influence of his fanatical older brother. Tsarnaev, 21, stood with his hands folded upon learning his fate, decided after 14 hours of deliberations over three days in the nation's most closely watched terrorism trial since the Oklahoma City bombing case two decades ago. The decision sets the stage for what could be the nation's first execution of a terrorist in the post-9/11 era, though the case is likely to go through years of appeals. The execution would be carried out by lethal injection. The 12-member jury had to be unanimous for Tsarnaev to get the death penalty. Otherwise, he would have automatically received a sentence of life in prison without parole. Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of an MIT police officer during the Tsarnaev brothers' getaway attempt. Seventeen of those charges carried the possibility of the death penalty.

Live feed is here:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 23, 2015 19 Comments
As the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev entered the penalty phase yesterday, jurors were shown a photo of the Boston Marathon bomber giving the finger to a jail security camera after his arrest. The Boston Globe reported:
Jurors view footage of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev making obscene gesture Jurors in the death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Wednesday were shown video of him making an obscene gesture as well as holding his fingers in the shape of “V” to a surveillance camera in a courthouse holding cell three months after he was arrested in the terror attack. A prosecutor had shown a picture of Tsarnaev making the obscene gesture to the jury in US District Court in Boston at the end of her opening statement in the penalty phase of the trial on Tuesday, underlining her argument that he was “unconcerned, unrepentant, and unchanged” after the attack. On Wednesday, video of the incident, which happened on July 10, 2013, was shown to jurors at the request of Tsarnaev’s defense team.
The gesture is blurred in this video but you'll get the idea:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 11, 2015 3 Comments
On Wednesday, a jury in Boston found Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of capital murder. The prosecution went 30 for 30 on all counts, including all 17 charges that include a penalty of either death or life in prison. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole announced that the second phase in Tsarnaev's trial---the penalty phase---will begin on April 21st. Attorneys for both sides will present before the same jury on "aggravating and mitigating factors." This means that the prosecution will (most likely) present evidence that supports the maximum penalty, while defense counsel does her best to keep her client alive. Details from HuffPo:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 08, 2015 19 Comments
A Massachusetts jury is ready to release the verdict in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is accused on 30 counts; 17 of those counts carry a sentence of either death or life in prison. In terms of the end result, it could come down to Count 1: Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. If Tsarnaev is found guilty on this count, he will become eligible for the death penalty. During the trial, prosecutors focused on the devastation caused by the attack, while defense attorneys focused on mitigating factors affecting Tsarnaev's conduct. They tried to emphasize the role his 26 year-old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev played in the bombing:
On Monday, the jury saw a video of the moment a bomb exploded and disemboweled an 8-year-old boy and ripped the leg off his sister. The blast killed a 23-year-old graduate student from China. The jurors heard more horror from April 15, 2013. At one point, prosecutors played a video that showed the scene after a bomb exploded -- blood and injured victims everywhere and the sounds of a child howling. His mother lost her leg.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 18, 2014 19 Comments
When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev helped plot the terror bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, he probably didn't suspect he'd remain alive long enough to take advantage of the ensuing media tidal wave. Not so fast. Tsarnaev survived the bombing and ensuing chase, and is now on trial for murder in what might shape up to be one of the most hostile venues in the history of the American legal tradition. (Think that's hyperbole? Have you ever met someone from Boston? They take Boston seriously.) U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. has denied Tsarnaev's attorney's request to move the trial to a venue less intimate to the vicious crime his client committed, and at the latest hearing, supporters of Tsarnaev came from around the country to demand justice for a man they claim is being framed by the U.S. government. From Bloomberg:
The mother-in-law of a Chechen murder suspect killed by FBI agents probing the Boston Marathon bombing disrupted a pre-trial hearing for defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, shouting the U.S. must “stop killing innocent boys.” The outburst came as Tsarnaev seeks to move the Jan. 5 trial to Washington or New York from Boston, where his lawyers argued jurors will be biased against him. The 21-year-old faces possible execution if convicted in the 2013 attack that killed 3 and injured 260. An earlier request to move the case was denied.
She's not the only one who made a scene:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 03, 2014 7 Comments
Via The Times of Israel, Thwarted Israeli bus blast similar to Boston bombings:
The bomb that tore through a Dan No. 240 bus in the central Israeli city of Bat Yam on December 22 was assembled in a pressure cooker and activated by cellphone, much like the devices that killed three people and wounded hundreds more during the Boston Marathon in April 2013, the Shin Bet investigation has revealed.... The bomb, which exploded at the corner of Mivtza Sinai and Katzenelson streets in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, caused no injuries because an alert passenger had noticed the bag containing the device left unattended by the bus’s rear door. The driver evacuated the bus, and the device was detonated as an Israeli sapper attempted to defuse it. The bus was wrecked, but there were no injuries.... According to information released by the Shin Bet, the bomb, consisted of two kilograms of improvised explosives surrounded by nails and screws and stuffed into a pressure cooker. This was a method akin to the one used by Boston murderers, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It was made popular by an al-Qaeda manual placed online.
More on the plot, via Haaretz:
Israeli security forces carried out a series of arrests in the West Bank city of Bethlehem following the attack, detaining members of the Islamic Jihad militant group. The Shin Bet believes that two of the central suspects in the plot to bomb the bus are former security prisoners in Israel: Shahada Ta'amri, 24, and his 21-year-old brother Hamdi Ta'amri, a former cadet in the Jericho Police officers' course. Another central suspect was named as Yousef Salame, 22.

Posted by New Neo on August 05, 2013 46 Comments
This seemed inevitable. With all the efforts to tie the Tea Party and "right wing" to violence committed by others, it wouldn't be long before the Islamic radical Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was tied to "right-wing" causes. With the slenderest of proof, The BBC goes there:
One of the brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings was in possession of right-wing American literature in the run-up to the attack, BBC Panorama has learnt.

BBC Tsarnaev Right Wing

So, what was this supposed "right-wing" literature? Was Tamerlan reading about lower taxes and federalism, more restriction of federal versus state government? About shrinking entitlements or stopping the growth of the welfare state? About the deficit? Reversing Roe v. Wade? No. Here's the BBC's list of Tamerlane's supposed right-wing causes:
Tamerlan Tsarnaev subscribed to publications espousing white supremacy and government conspiracy theories. He also had reading material on mass killings... The programme discovered that Tamerlan Tsarnaev possessed articles which argued that both 9/11 and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing were government conspiracies. Another in his possession was about "the rape of our gun rights". Reading material he had about white supremacy commented that "Hitler had a point". Tamerlan Tsarnaev also had literature which explored what motivated mass killings and noted how the perpetrators murdered and maimed calmly. There was also material about US drones killing civilians, and about the plight of those still imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
Let's take them one by one.
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