Or being Scottish, right? 
I am opposed to the death penalty and cruel and unusual punishment - which includes sensory deprivation or years of solitary confinement.
I read somewhere that prosecutors are not likely to be interested in offering Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a deal that would take the death penalty off the table in exchange for his cooperation, due to the public outcry if he wasn’t executed. Not to mention, prosecutors likely have enough evidence that they don’t even need Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s cooperation in order to secure a conviction.
So, I speculate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is going to get the death penalty, even though I don’t think he (or any other convicted criminal) should.
I think it will depend on how much they think he’s tied to other groups. If it was just him and his brother, possibly influenced by the mysterious “Misha”, then there isn’t much to trade for. If it turned out he was connected to other terror groups, then there would be reason to bargain.
I doubt it’s the conviction they want his cooperation for. It’s ongoing anti-terrorism stuff.
I agree. That’s especially true if he’s telling the truth when he says he and his brother acted alone. They don’t need his cooperation and he wouldn’t have anything significant to offer anyway.
I’m still not ready to accept “no ties to other terror groups”. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but we just had a bomb at a major sporting event in the US by people with ties to the Caucasus region and we have a huge sporting event (winter Olympics) in the Caucasus region in less than a year. It would not surprise me at all if there were some ties to some Chechen separatist group or other.
Do you think the public would be okay with bargaining over the death penalty even if he had information about other terror groups? Genuine question.
Or rather, if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev actually does have connections to other terror groups (which does not seem the case at this point, but could evolve as the investigation develops) then classify him as an “enemy combatant” for intelligence gathering purposes?
I’m just trying to stay current here: he told the government they acted alone and so far they haven’t found evidence that contradicts that. There’s no reason to take it on faith, though.
No, there is no death penalty in the UK at all, under any circumstances.
Which would potentially generate more outcry: Bargaining over the death penalty or declaring Tsarnaev an “enemy combatant?”
I honestly don’t know. I’m sure the GOP would try and politicize the shit out it if Obama did.
I think it’s too late for that. He’s in the criminal justice system, and I don’t think he can be legally extracted from there.
Yes, but I think it’s way too early to presume we know the whole story. I’m not betting the farm on my hypothesis, but I think there is still a chance there is more to this than the press knows. It may be weeks or even months before we get a full picture of these guys.
The death penalty will not do more to discourage this sort of thing than life without parole. Therefore, we should choose the least damaging option. I’m just unclear on which that is.
As for what will happen? I predict death penalty overturned by appeal, with a 30% chance that the guy will commit suicide or be killed by a Jack Ruby before it’s all over.
Will the death penalty deter future bombers? Of course not. Nobody’s going to say, “I *would *blow up that sporting event, but if I’m caught, they’ll kill me…”
The only purpose in sentencing Tsarnaev to death would be for revenge- and we, as a society, shouldn’t use our justice system for revenge.
It hasn’t been successful deterring other kinds of murder, I don’t see why it would be uniquely successful against this kind of terrorism.
Ah. I left in 1996 and missed all that. Thanks.
I am against the death penalty, so of course I don’t believe Tsarnaev should get it.
Will he? Very likely, I’m afraid. (I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.)
So to show the world how generous and merciful we can be, we should execute the guy?
So why aren’t all the lifers trying to get the DP? Why is it that DP people are trying for life in prison?
Of course this evil asshole deserves the death penalty. Whether he will get it is another question. Probably not.