Tsarnaev Charged With Using WMD

Will be tried in civilian court, not considered 'enemy combatant'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2013 12:57 PM CDT
Tsarnaev Charged With Using WMD
This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.   (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction in the Boston Marathon bombings and could face a death sentence. The 19-year-old, who is in serious but stable condition, had an initial court appearance in his hospital room today, before a magistrate judge, the AP reports. The Wall Street Journal has a copy of the criminal complaint, which also includes malicious destruction of property resulting in death. Tsarnaev will also likely face state charges connected to the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier.

Tsarnaev won't be treated as an enemy combatant, as some Republicans have demanded, because he is a naturalized US citizen, White House press secretary Jay Carney reaffirmed today. "We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice," Carney said, according to NBC News. "This is absolutely the right way to go and the appropriate way to go," he added, according to Business Insider. (More Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stories.)

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