“On Saturday, Dzhokhar was reportedly clinging to life and under heavy guard at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He apparently suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and leg during separate gun battles with authorities on Friday.”
Since it appears that young Mr. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is heavily medicated and bandaged around the throat I think it is reasonable to assume the following.
1–He can not give a knowing and voluntary waiver of his Miranda Rights, once advised.
2–He cannot physically answer any questions.
3–Since he’d be heavily medicated, any statements made, even post Miranda, would have a great shot at be suppressed and rendered unusable at trial.
These facts render this whole debate pointless. He can’t, and won’t be questioned for many days, if not weeks, and when the time comes, he’ll be advised.
In the meantime, no statements will be needed from him to go before the Federal Grand Jury in Boston and indict him on a whole host of violations and in State Court on a whole bunch of others, to include the murder of his brother.
From another article,
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was so desperate to escape he ran over his brother as he lay wounded. He later abandoned the car on Spruce Street in Watertown and fled on foot, disappearing from sight, officials said.”
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”
There you have it. He must be convicted in open court.
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
The US Code does not supersede the US Constitution.
Name the foreign enemy? Are you asking for the name of a nation-state? There isn’t one. We are at war with non-state actors who are radical Muslims. Are you saying that the charge of treason can only be applied if the citizen is giving aid to/ makes war on behalf of a nation-state? That’s preposterous.
You cannot charge a “violation of the Constitution” in Federal Court. You have to charge a crime.
The crime of treason is enumerated in the U.S. Code for this purpose under 18 USC 2381.
Every crime has elements. Most have multiple elements. For instance, knowingly and willfully violating a law is part. Specific elements of a particular crime is another part.
Tsarnaev has only met the “owing allegiance” portion of the treason statute.
He has not waged war against the United States. He has not given aid or comfort to an enemy of the United States. He would have to do these in addition to owing allegiance to be charged with treason.
He has committed a whole host of state and federal violations but treason is not one of them.
The only U.S. citizen that I can think of at the moment who has been charged with treason from the GWOT is Adam Gadahn and his specific acts are well documented.
They’ve both been here about ten years. Doesn’t matter if you were born here, naturalized a decade ago or seven months ago, treason is treason. That’s not what’s being debated here however. If he did commit treason he would certainly be eligible. I don’t see where his actions meet the criteria however & therefore agree with kmrtnsn on this one.
IF these two are linked to AQ or some other foreign terrorist group I believe they were “making war” against the US. I think if they were found to have been helped by a State it would be called an obvious act of war. I’ll defer to the legal definition but I believe this was war IF they got help from or did it for a known enemy of the US.
This guy gets a subscribe from me and I don’t do that very often. His videos are succinct, intelligible and on the money each and every time. I’ve only seen a couple posted over the months/years from time to time so I hope I don’t end up eating my words after seeing his videos more regularly but he seems like an intelligent young man who understands what freedom really is.
I agree that any collaboration with foreign entities (not necessarily governments) hostile to the US makes him eligible for a treason charge. Who among us would disagree that planting bombs around a city is waging war?
However, I’m certain that our government does not have the balls to bring such a charge. They have more than enough evidence to string him up on multiple offenses that make him eligible for the federal death penality. Why complicate things if you’ve got plenty of reasons to run a paralyzingly agent through his vein?
Let’s face it, the reason we wage war overseas is to prevent having these issues at home. Three cheers for the “reset button” foreign policy and multi-culturalism.
Strangely ironic that all of our domestic attacks during this century are a direct result of said foreign wars…that are waged to prevent these attacks at home. Weird.
Yes. The number of people coming out of the wood work to justify the opposite I find unsettling.
I see this problem as really simple. Is a person taken into custody (terrorist suspect or otherwise) a U.S. citizen? Yes or no? If yes the system works as it should. If no, call me so I can get my waterboarding shorts on.
Judge Nepolitano said it best (I’m paraphrasing). “The constitution exists for times of good and of bad, it exists for monsters and for the innocent alike”. Being the supreme law of the land and all…