Saturday, April 20, 2013

How Should the Marathon Bomber be Tried?

The (as far as we know) lone surviving Boston Marathon bomber has been captured. Soon he will have to be tried, the question is will he be tried as an American citizen in a criminal trial, or will he be tried as a "terrorist" in a military trial? I think this will be a watershed moment in American history as it will define how our country wishes to travel through the turbulent years ahead. Will we stand by our judicial system and trust it to give guidance to the future generations in our nation, or will we undermine it by intimating that it is not be trusted by turning this young man over to the military to be tried?

IF he is tried as a terrorist in a military trial, it means that he will not be allowed a defense lawyer, nor will the public likely be privy to what occurs during this "trial". Essentially, he will simply disappear, no doubt to the Guantanamo Bay facility where even now, there are an indeterminate number of "terrorists" languishing in a virtual purgatory. This will give very few people in the United States a sense of closure on what has become a national tragedy. No matter how he is put on trial, the dead will not come back to life, and the wounded will not miraculously recover. The American public though does deserve to see that justice is done for those who have suffered at this mans' hands.

IF our justice system in this country is sound and fair, there is no reason that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should not be able to be tried in a civilian criminal court setting. Timothy McVeigh was tried in a criminal court proceeding and I believe that by anyones account, he is presently serving a justified sentence for his crime, the bombing of the  Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. An attack that killed 168 people and injured over 800. So put in that perspective, the Boston Marathon bombing actually pales in comparison. There is no reason that a civilian court cannot try Mr Tsarnaev for his crime. 

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