"Marathon bombing suspect's lawyers want more time," is the AP report.
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) have asked a judge to order federal prosecutors to give them more time to make their case against the death penalty.
In court Monday, Tsarnaev's lawyers said they have not received key evidence from prosecutors yet and have not had enough time to submit a proposal arguing that Tsarnaev does not deserve the death penalty.
A prosecutor argued it's been almost six months since the marathon bombing, a "reasonable" amount of time for the defense to make its case. He said prosecutors plan to make their recommendation to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder by Oct. 31. Holder will have the ultimate say on whether to seek the death penalty.
An earlier AP report, filed before this morning's brief hearing was, "Death penalty protocol will be focus of Boston Marathon bomb hearing," via NECN.
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will ask a judge to discuss the timeline and procedure for prosecutors to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
A joint status report filed in court says the defense wants the court to address "the death penalty protocol" in federal court on Monday.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will ultimately make the decision about whether to seek the federal death penalty, but the U.S. attorney's office in Boston will make a recommendation. Tsarnaev's attorneys also have the right to make the case against the death penalty.
Mass. Lawyers Weekly posts, "U.S. attorney’s decision on death penalty looming in Tsarnaev," by David Frank.
A Friday afternoon filing in the case of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicates that U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office is getting ready to make its recommendation on whether or not to seek the death penalty.
Tsarnaev has been charged with 30 crimes, 17 of which carry a maximum sentence of death. If the government seeks the death penalty, AUSA William D. Weinreb writes that 18 U.S.C. §3593(a) requires it to file a notice with the court “a reasonable time before the trial or before acceptance by the court of a plea of guilty.”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who ultimately makes the decision on death, has established internal policies and procedures to guide the Department of Justice. To facilitate that decision, Ortiz must make a confidential submission of relevant information to him “as expeditiously as possible.”
If U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. sets a deadline for the government to file a section 3593(a) notice, which Tsarnaev’s lawyers are asking him to do, then Ortiz must make the submission to Holder no fewer than 90 days before the deadline.
Weinreb adds that his office is required to give defense counsel a reasonable opportunity to provide input on the death-penalty authorization decision before that happens. But he said the defense’s request that O’Toole set deadlines for when the government must make certain internal decisions is improper.
“For the Court to decide what information the Attorney General must consider and when he must consider it in making the death-penalty authorization decision would violate the Separation of Powers doctrine,” he writes. “Whether to seek the death penalty in a given case is quintessentially a matter of prosecutorial discretion.”
Earlier coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombing case begins at the link. Related posts are in the federal death penalty category index.
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