Tsarnaev Day 11: The prosecution is making a tremendous amount of headway in attempting to prove that admitted Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was self-radicalized within his Muslim faith, according to Northeastern University Law Professor Daniel Medwed.
Medwed, who is an expert on criminal law, says proving that point is critical for the prosecution’s case for two reasons: “It thwarts the defense theory that Dzhokhar was acting under the influence of his older brother Tamerlan, if they can establish that he was self-radicalized, and that he had independent movement in that direction,” according to Medwed.
Medwed says, “it’s critical for a second reason, because many of the thirty charges the defendant is facing are allegations of terrorism, which is something above and beyond murder, and in order to support a terrorism charge, there has to be a goal of killing civilians for political objectives.”
During Tuesday's testimony, defense attorneys' for Tsarnaev are expected to question terrorism expert, former FBI analyst Matthew Levitt, who on Monday testified that the note Tsarnaev wrote explaining the 2013 attacked used global Jihad themes similar to the materials found on Tsarnaev’s computer.
The trial is now in its third week and the prosecution is expected to wrap up its case possibly as early as Wednesday.
To hear the entire interview with Professor Medwed http://www.northeastern.edu/news/faculty-experts/daniel-s-medwed/ click on the audio file above.
