Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Altlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and Boston Marathon bomber Dhzhokhar Tsarnaev now have more in common than their alleged criminal acts. They all have or had acclaimed defense attorney Judy Clarke behind their table.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler appointed Clarke to aid Miriam Conrad, head federal defender on the case, and the defense team Monday.
“It’s very rare to have a death penalty case brought in Massachussets,” said Stanley Fisher, a Boston University School of Law professor specializing in criminal law. “The state doesn’t have the death penalty, the federal statutes do … I don’t know the last time the federal government sought the death penalty in a case in Massachusetts.”
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Since capital defense is a specialty in law, Fisher said the federal defense office most likely brought in Clarke due to her experience.
Clarke, whose practice is based in San Diego where there is a death penalty, primarily takes death penalty cases. Her most notable clients, most recently Tucson shooter Jared Loughner, who injured former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, all received life sentences, despite capital punishment being sought for their cases.
Fisher said a major part of what a death penalty lawyer does is investigate the defendant’s past to both find exculpatory evidence around which to build a defense and to find inculpatory evidence the prosecution may use against him or her.
“This requires a lot of time and resources, and it’s something that capital defense lawyers are used to and trained and equipped to do,” he said.
Bowler has denied a request by Conrad to appoint a second death penalty lawyer to the defense, Washington and Lee University professor David Bruck.
Tsarnaev is specifically charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death. The bomb he is charged with using during the Boston Marathon April 15 killed three and injured more than 200 others.
The devices were placed near the metal barriers separating the runners from the spectators, and each explosion killed, maimed, burned or wounded many people in addition to damaging public property.
Tsarnaev is being held at a prison hospital, recovering from wounds he received in a gun battle after killing Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier and leading police in a chase into Watertown where he was later found in a boat. Dzhokhar’s older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, also suspected in the bombing case, was killed in the shootout.
Wednesday, three more suspects were arrested for charges related to the marathon bombings. The three received their own lawyers and are facing federal charges of up to five years in prison.
