The Boston marathon bombing suspect has added to his legal defense team a prominent death penalty lawyer who has worked on high-profile cases such as the Unabomber and the gunman who killed six and wounded 13, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson in 2011.
The addition of San Diego lawyer Judy Clarke was approved Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler, The Associated Press reported.
Ms. Clarke was able to secure life sentences, rather than the death penalty, for Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner and Ted Kaczynski, the so-called “Unabomber,” among other prominent clients.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction at the April 15 Boston Marathon in an attack that killed three and wounded 264.
His brother Tamerlan, 26, the other bombing suspect, was killed in a firefight with police in the aftermath of the incident.
Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz told the AP the decision to put Ms. Clarke on the defense team shows “they are going to litigate hard against the death penalty.”
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“They are not going to put on a jihadi defense,” he said. “The client wants to live, and he wants to avoid the death penalty. They are not going to say, ’I want to die, I want to join my brother.’ “
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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