Dzhokhar Is Facing the Death Penalty: Associated Press: “Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged in his hospital room Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, and he could face the death penalty if convicted. Tsarnaev, 19, was accused by federal prosecutors of joining with his older brother to set off the two pressure-cooker bombs that sprayed shrapnel into the crowd at the finish line last Monday, killing three people and wounding more than 180. The criminal complaint containing the charges shed no light on the motive for the attack.”
Did Tamerlan Kill a Rommate in 2011? ABC News: “In the wake of the revelations about the violent nature of accused marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, investigators in the Boston suburbs tell ABC News they are probing whether he may have been involved in an unsolved grisly triple homicide of a former roommate and two others. The murders took place around the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. … Tsarnaev, the alleged bombing mastermind who died in a fierce gun battle with police early Friday morning, had been training with one of the 2011 murder victims in an attempt to transition from boxing into a possible career in the brutal sport of mixed-martial arts. The victims were found in a Waltham, Massachusetts apartment. They had their throat slashed, their heads nearly decapitated. Their mutilated bodies were left covered with marijuana.”
Timeline: Boston Globe: “Previously, investigators had said that Brendan Mess, 25, along with Erik Weissman, 25, and Raphael Teken, 37, were killed on Sept. 12, 2011, in Mess’s apartment on Harding Street, a quiet residential street in Waltham. … But the relative interviewed by the Globe said the murders took place the evening before, on Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.” The murders happened after Tsarnaev was interviewed by the FBI, but before he made his six-month trip to Russia.
More on the Boston Bombing From Slate—
- The Slatest: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Said to Be Awake and Answering Questions
- The Slatest: Boston Carjacking Victim Says Tsarnaev Brothers Spared Him Because He “Wasn’t American”
- The Slatest: White House: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Won’t Be Treated as Enemy Combatant
- The Slatest: Did the FBI Miss Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Trip to Russia Because of a Typo?
- The Slatest: Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Widow Isn’t Ready to Talk to the FBI Yet
- XX Factor: Family Research Council Blames Faith-Based Terrorism on a Decline in Religious Values. What?
- View From Chicago: The New Law We Need in Order to Deal With Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
- Weigel: Rand Paul: Why Were Two People Allowed to Immigrate “From the Chechen Republic, a Hotbed of Islamic Extremism”?
Good News: Associated Press: “In a rebuttal to the terrorists and a tribute to stellar medical care, all of the more than 180 people injured in the Boston Marathon blasts one week ago who made it to a hospital alive now seem likely to survive. That includes several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a 3-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails. Even a transit system police officer whose heart had stopped and was close to bleeding to death after a shootout with the suspects now appears headed for recovery. … Three people did die in the blasts, but at the scene, before hospitals even had a chance to try to save them. … The only person to reach a hospital alive and then die was one of the suspected bombers — 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.”
More Good News: NESN: Watertown Police Department Chief Ed Deveau says that Richard Donahue, the Boston transit officer who was wounded in the gunfight with the brothers, is “getting stronger every day.”
Happy Monday and welcome back to the Slatest PM, where we hope to return to our normal programming schedule now that the Boston manhunt is over. Follow your afternoon host on Twitter at @JoshVoorhees and the whole team at @slatest.
Canada’s Own Terror Scare: NBC News: “Canadian security forces say they have thwarted a plot to blow up a rail line between Canada and the United States and announced two arrests on Monday afternoon. Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers said the suspects, who are alleged to have al-Qaeda connections, had sought to attack a passenger train. Canadian officials worked closely with the FBI throughout the investigation, which began last year. Though security officials say the men had the capacity to attack, ‘there was no imminent threat to the public, rail employees, train passengers or infrastructure.’”
Gitmo Hunger Strike Spreads: Reuters: “The U.S. military is sending additional medical personnel to the Guantanamo prison camp, where more than half the captives have joined a hunger strike to protest their open-ended detention, a camp spokesman said on Monday. Reinforcements numbering fewer than 40 will arrive by the end of April, said Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House, a spokesman for the detention operation at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in southeastern Cuba. House said the new arrivals would include a doctor, nurses, corpsmen and medics, who will supplement the 100 medical personnel already on duty. Navy hospital corpsmen and Army medics are trained to provide emergency care and basic medical services. … The U.S. military counted 84 of the 166 prisoners as hunger strikers on Monday and was force-feeding 16 of them liquid meals through tubes inserted in their noses and down into their stomachs. Six were hospitalized for observation, House said.”
Most Wanted No Longer: CBS News: “Police in Nicaragua have detained Eric Justin Toth, a child-porn suspect and one of the FBI’s ten most-wanted fugitives.The head of detectives for Nicaragua’s National Police force says Toth was detained near the Honduran border. … The former Washington D.C. elementary school teacher faces accusations he possessed and produced child pornography. He lost his teaching job in 2008 after another teacher found images of child pornography on a school camera in Toth’s possession. He then disappeared. The FBI had offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the 31-year-old Toth.”
A Few More Quick Hits From Slate—
- Weigel: Poll: Mark Sanford Suddenly, Predictably Trailing by 9 Points in Comeback Bid
- Weigel: Republicans Forget Whether They Accused Democrats of Politicizing Newtown
- The Slatest: Anthony Weiner Is Back on Twitter
- XX Factor: Three New Cases Challenge Sexual Assault on High School and College Campuses
- Moneybox: Taco Bell Says Doritos Locos Tacos Have Created 15,000 Jobs
- XX Factor: What the Critics Are Missing About the New Dove Ad Campaign
See you back here tomorrow. Until then, tell your friends to subscribe, or simply forward the newsletter on and let them make up their own minds.
