On Wednesday what was supposed to have been a hearing on a defense request for a change of venue for the upcoming trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev turned into a legal exploration of patriotism.
The status hearing, stuffed as these sessions go—with tactical requests from the defense and prosecution, was over within an hour.
Perhaps the most noteworthy moment during an otherwise dry pro-forma session centered around the prosecutions’ plans to brand Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as someone who betrayed his country when he took an oath of office, and then abrogated that oath through his actions on April 15, 2013.
Tsarnaev is accused along with his deceased brother, Tamerlan, of planting two bombs that took three lives.
He betrayed the country he swore to protect, argued prosecutors, and for that the death penalty was warranted in this case. But U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole, Jr. rejected that view, and described the effort to draw a distinction between naturalized citizens and native-born citizens “highly inappropriate”
As far as the change of venue request from the defense that is still pending said court watcher David Frank, managing editor for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly:
“It’s not clear when a change of motion will be heard. It’s not even clear whether the judge will have an evidentiary hearing (...) But we know that a day will come when a judge will have to decide that issue.”
Defense attorneys also requested that the FBI and prison officials where Tsarnaev is being held be barred from the room when he and his sisters are meeting . On another matter, Judge O’Toole said he wasn’t happy about leaks in the case .
The next status conference in the Tsarnaev saga is scheduled for August 14. But O’Toole said there could be hearings between then and now on a variety of new motions.
A trial date has been set for November.
