Update, 1:30 p.m. — end of day: Many observers thought the defense would offer its final witnesses in the penalty phase of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsaranev’s trial Thursday. Instead, the trial ended abruptly for the week.
After a lengthy, unplanned morning recess, Judge George O’Toole delivered the news just after 1 p.m.: The Tsarnaev trial would wrap for the week—and resume on Monday. The judge said he’d been working on “some issues” with the prosecution and defense teams—and that more work still needed to be done.
Come Monday, jurors may hear from Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun and death penalty opponent who inspired the movie "Dead Man Walking." She was in court Thursday, but was never called.
———
Update, noon: The government is arguing, basically, in the penalty phase of convicted Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, that the facility where Tsarnaev could spend life in prison wouldn’t be so bad.
The defense says Tsarnaev would be almost totally isolated from human contact if he’s sentenced to prison. But as he cross-examined a defense witness this morning, prosecutor Steven Mellin painted a different picture.
At the ADX facility in Florence, Colorado, Tsarnaev would get five social visits a month right off the bat, Mellin said — along with unlimited legal visits. A significant other could eventually visit too, he added. In fact, Mellin said, Tsarnaev could even write a book.
———
The government on Thursday is working to discredit a witness who painted a bleak picture of the life Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would lead in prison.
Mark Bezy, a veteran of the federal bureau of prisons and a longtime prison administrator, said on Wednesday Tsarnaev would be severely isolated if he’s sentenced to a maximum security facility in Colorado.
But Thursday the government argued that Bezy’s knowledge of the so called “Special Administrative Measures” Tsarnaev would subject to is limited. In fact, they pointed out, he’s never implemented them — or even testified about them before.
