An in-depth study of the court case United States v. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Confession: I've been avoiding talking about the US presidential election on this blog for quite some time. My reasoning for this was that it wasn't relevant to the facts of Dzhokhar's case, nor the appeal process. I also know a decent chunk of my readership is outside America, and I didn't want to clog up… Continue reading Election Blues, or Why You Should Still Vote
On a rainy summer day, Heather and Attorney Dad take a car trip to test out a theory presented by the prosecution.
Tracing the Ruger that killed Sean Collier reveals a lot of information not shown at Dzhokhar's trial.
A Ruger handgun killed Sean Collier, and the prosecution asserted Dzhokhar obtained the gun from a good friend. But the friend's story is plagued by vagueness and inconsistencies that throw the whole narrative into question.
The burden of proof is on the prosecution. If there's no evidence found against the defendant, he is therefore innocent; he cannot be guilty simply because a microscopic possibility remains that some evidence against him might have been missed.
An eyewitness testified that he saw Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at Officer Collier's car, but did he really?
On February 17th, Dzhokhar's lawyers filed a motion requesting that appellate counsel be appointed to handle the case going forward. This is big news. While I am at work on my next post, I thought it was worth sharing the impressions of the document written by our contributing death penalty scholar, Margo Schulter. To follow… Continue reading A Scholar’s Impression of the Tsarnaev Motion to Appoint Counsel on Appeal
Hello and happy 2016! I apologize that I'm not coming to you with a new post of case analysis, but there's been some developments in both the case and the blog, so I wanted to address those fairly quickly before moving on. Rest assured I have been hard at work on the research and planning,… Continue reading Appeal Update, Site Changes and What’s Next on the Blog
As we near the end of 2015, I must reflect on what a tumultuous year it's been. At this time last year, I saw Dzhokhar's trial approaching like a tidal wave coming from a long way off. A year ago, I still believed in the inherent success of the U.S. justice system. I thought… Continue reading What’s In an Appeal? The Process in the Tsarnaev Case So Far
It's time to dive into some court testimony. I can think of no better place to start than with Dr. Matthew Levitt. As you may recall from my previous post, Dr. Levitt was an expert witness called by the government to discuss the “jihadi materials” found on the laptop of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. I have a few… Continue reading Further Notes on Dr. Matthew Levitt’s Tsarnaev Trial Testimony: Junk Psychology, Islamophobia, and Bad History, Oh My!
US v. Tsarnaev 