Twenty Questions about Tsarnaev at the Marathon

by Cheryl Dean and Mary Maxwell

Concerning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s case, I’ve penned 15 questions – in response to a similar list of 15 that Mary Maxwell had posed for the Martin Bryant case in Australia.
We think this is a good way to pin things on court personnel, and to demonstrate what really happened. Maxwell contributed an additional 5 below, about Dzhokhar (aka “Jahar”), making a total of Twenty Questions.

1. To Mariam Ryan, District Attorney of Middlesex County:
At your press conference you were asked the question, Why weren't trained dogs brought in to find a bleeding and wounded Dzhokhar, allegedly bleeding and wounded, as he fled and hid from the Watertown "shootout"? You couldn't answer that then. Why not? Please answer now.

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2. To David Bruck of the Defense Team:
Before the trial started, during a status conference, you stated to the prosecution: "we all know that this case is all about sentencing". Why would you say this? Were you just an extended member of the prosecution? Isn’t there a professional obligation, never mind a moral obligation, to defend your client?

3. To Officer St. Onge:

You are the one who reportedly came face to face with Dzhokhar on Spruce St. after he fled in the SUV, then jumped out of the SUV and got away on foot. He was wounded and bleeding -- why didn't you run after him? Surely you could have caught him. It then took law enforcement 19 hours to search for him, while Bostonians were told to “shelter in place.”

4. To Richard DesLauriers, Boston Head of FBI:
Why did you allow officer Sean Collier’s cruiser to be completely destroyed barely 3 weeks after the bombing? It had not crashed or had any chemical contamination. Isn't that destroying evidence? The defense had not even seen the cruiser before it was destroyed. What is your excuse?

5. To Judy Clarke, Dzhokhar's “death penalty lawyer”:
When the remains of a black backpack was shown in court and said to be Dzhokhar's backpack, why didn't you mention that Dzhokhar's backpack was white? This was the only piece of evidence linking Dzhokhar to the bombing site, yet no one on the defense team seemed to think it was important.

6. To Carmen Ortiz, the Prosecutor in this case:
Where is the receipt for the gas allegedly purchased at the gas station, while Dun Meng, the carjackee was in his SUV with both Tsarnaev brothers, just before he bravely "escaped". It was testified to in court that gas was pumped into the car and purchased, that is, paid for. You managed to find Tamerlan's high school diploma (in his own car!), but no gas receipt, which was essential to prove the whole carjacking story.

7. To US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch:
Please tell us why you allowed the cruel and unusual, and unwarranted Special Administrative Measures to be imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 4 months after his capture and incarceration? Muslim "terrorists" are all under SAM's, all to "protect" National Security. However the flimsy 5 reasons given by Carmen Ortiz who asked for the SAM's did not include " to protect National Security" as one of the reasons. Tell us the real reason.

8. To Judy Clarke:
Why did you say in your opening statement, "It was him" pointing to your client. How did you know this? Since Dzhokhar never changed his plea to guilty, what legal right did you have to announce to the world on the first day of the trial that "it was him"?

9. To Jeff Bauman, the man whose legs were blown off:
You stated in court that you locked eyes with Tamerlan Tsarnaev while he was standing beside you at Bomb Scene One. How can you lock eyes with someone who is wearing very dark type sunglasses?

10. To Matthew Isgur, the man who manages the cameras on the MIT campus
When you took the stand, the prosecutor played a video, Exhibit 724, made of excepts from a one-hour video you put together, covering 10pm to 11p.m. on the night of April 18, 2013. You said there are 1200 cameras on campus. Why did you show only a very far-away picture of the alleged msicreants? Can’t MIT do better than that?

11. To Carmen Ortiz:
Why did you edit that video, omitting the actual time when Collier was killed?

12. To Dun Meng,
As Russ Baker has pointed out, you changed your carjacking story several times. For instance you later added that Tamerlan had confessed to murdering the MIT cop. Why didn't you provide that key piece of information in your first interview?

13. To Judy Clarke:
Why did defense staff in Russia, in mid April 2015 -- after the trial had started, beg family members to ask Dzhokhar to plead guilty?

14. To Carmen Ortiz:
We saw a surveillance video of Dun Meng inside the gas station to which he "escaped" after being carjacked by the Tsarnaevs. In the video we see his keys hanging from his back pocket. (Shouldn’t they still be in the ignition?) Why weren't Dun Meng's car keys tested for Tamerlan’s fingerprints?

15. To George A O’Toole, judge in the case:
Why did you put hundreds of documents under seal?

16. To Dzhokhar:
Police say you wrote a “manifesto” on the wall of the boat in Watertown, and mentioned in it that your dear brother had died a martyr. What made you think he was deceased? Did you see him on Adams St?

17. To Nathan Harman, MIT student:
Heather Frizzell has done a test run, on a bike similar to yours, at the relevant stretch of the MIT campus. She found that to turn her head and look at Collier's car would have occupied about one second and that this would not have given her a chance to notice that Dzhokhar's clothing had writing on it. Did you slow down?

18. To Charlene, Social Worker from the Defense Team:
According to Maret Tsarnaeva’s affidavit, you visited the accused’s parents in Russia and encouraged them to tell Jahar to plead guilty. You said there was pressure coming from “high up” for Judy Clarke and others “not to resist conviction.” How high up is high up?

19. Sgt Clarence Heninger of campus police:
As a member of the MIT campus police for forty years, you knew the scene intimately. On April 18 you told media that the FBI had been on campus that afternoon (hours before Sean Collier was killed). Why were they there?

20. To Dun Meng, alleged victim of carjacking:
When you were in the witness box, your gaze was fixed on Northeastern University professor Fox. Did you depend on him for guidance in answering the questions?

Conclusion
There are hundreds of questions that need to be answered in this case. If even a significant few of the of the unasked and unanswered questions had been answered, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would be safe and warm, at home, right now, never having stepped foot into the Supermax solitary confines of H unit at ADX prison in Colorado where he currently is incarcerated.

What will it take for leaders of governments, particularly the United States, to have even some semblance of honest justice or even a drop of compassion or humanity?

Here is a very spot-on message from Senator Rand Paul, MD, of Kentucky:

-- Cheryl Dean has been on the Tsarnaev case for three and a half years, writing articles at GumshoeNews.com. Mary W Maxwell is trying to get Bostonians to wake up to reality.

See below for a a link to Ms Dean’s article on the Marathon Impact Statements. These were presented in court by the injured victims of the bombing, of which she is very skeptical.