Anti-death penalty campaigner joins marathon bomb suspect legal team

A leading anti-death penalty lawyer who has managed to get life sentences for several high-profile criminals has joined the defence team of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th Apr 2013, 18:17 BST

A judge has approved the appointment of death penalty expert Judy Clarke to defend 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who is accused of killing three people and injuring more than 260 injured during the April 15 marathon. But judge Marianne Bowler denied a request from Tsarnaev’s public defender, Miriam Conrad, to appoint a second death penalty lawyer – David Bruck, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Ms Clarke’s clients have included the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski; Susan Smith, a woman who drowned her two children; Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph; and most recently Jared Loughner, who shot former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head. All received life sentences instead of the death penalty.

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In other developments in the Boston case FBI agents visited the home of the in-laws of the suspect’s brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and carried away several bags. The brother was killed in a gun battle with police.

President Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin also discussed terrorism cooperation. The suspected bombers are Russians who moved to the US.