The Boston Marathon bombing: after the manhunt, the search for answers continues

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be put to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. After convicting Tsarnaev of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 29 other charges last month, today a federal court jury voted that he receive capital punishment in the form of lethal injection. Dzhokhar and older brother Tamerlan (who was later killed during a shootout with police) set off two homemade pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the famed Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and over 250 were injured by the explosions and resulting shrapnel; many required amputations and other life-altering surgeries.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two men behind the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, has been found guilty of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 29 other charges, making it possible that he'll face the death penalty. In April 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan set off two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring over 250. When investigators released images of two unknown suspects, the pair fled, shooting and killing a police officer in the process. Escaping from a firefight with police, Dzhokhar ran over and killed his brother; he was eventually found injured in a boat. Prosecutors brought 30 charges against him, 17 of which carried the possibility of capital punishment. Today, a jury found him guilty of all 30.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the primary conspirator in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people, slipped through airport security because his name was misspelled in a database, according to a new Congressional report.

The Russian intelligence agency warned US authorities twice that Tsarnaev was a radical Islamist and potentially dangerous. As a result, Tsarnaev was entered into two US government databases: the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment and the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS), an interagency border inspection database.

Shortly after the Boston bombing, a disconcerting and seemingly conspiratorial story came out: chief suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been killed in a shootout with police, was alleged to be linked to an unsolved triple homicide that occurred nearly two years earlier. But the story actually wasn't so conspiratorial. The FBI began investigating, and a month later a man linked to both Tsarnaev and the killings, Ibragim Todashev, was reportedly shot and killed in his apartment by the bureau. Not much conclusive evidence has shed light on the killings since then, but an exhaustive investigative report from Boston Magazine and This American Life now suggests why that might be.

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will head to trial on November 3rd, according to NBC News. The United States government is pursuing the death penalty in its case against Tsarnaev, who is accused of helping to orchestrate an attack that shook the nation last April. Three people were killed in the blasts that targeted marathon onlookers; more than 260 others were wounded. The planned trial date is much sooner than Tsarnaev's defense team would have liked. His lawyers originally requested that Tsarnaev's day in court arrive no earlier than September 2015, but Judge George A. O’Toole sided in favor of the government's fall time frame.

Prosecutors allege that Dzhokhar and older brother Tamerlan planted two homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the popular Boston Marathon. They are also accused of murdering an MIT police officer during an attempt to flea the area. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was later killed in a shootout with police; Dzhokhar escaped that confrontation but was eventually captured after a local resident realized the suspect was hiding in a boat in his backyard. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has since pled not guilty to 30 federal counts including using weapons of mass destruction.

Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Though Massachusetts does not allow the death penalty, Tsarnaev is facing federal charges including the alleged use of a weapon of mass destruction. "After consideration of the relevant facts, the applicable regulations and the submissions made by the defendant’s counsel, I have determined that the United States will seek the death penalty in this matter," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision."

Only three people have been executed at a federal level since the death penalty was reinstated in 1988, reports the Associated Press. Though only three executions have occurred, the AP reports that 70 death penalty sentences have been imposed, with eight since lifted. Massachusetts hasn't allowed the death penalty since 1984.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the dead older brother and one of the suspected masterminds behind the Boston Marathon bombings heard voices in his head and may have been afflicted with schizophrenia, the Boston Globe reports in a comprehensive new investigation into the Tsarnaev family. A five-month investigation by the Globe depicts a family that imploded in the wake of its members' personal failures, creating a toxic environment that may have led them to gravitate toward violence. "Taken together," the Globe reports, "these findings suggest that the motivation for the Tsarnaev brothers' violent acts is more likely rooted in the turbulent collapse of their family and their escalating personal and collective failures than, as federal investigators have suggested, on the other side of the globe."

The detailed family portrait describes psychiatric problems extending to the suspected bombers' parents, particularly father Anzor, who said he had been captured and tortured by Russian troops during the civil war in Chechnya. The Globe suggests that Anzor made up or exaggerated stories that the family had been persecuted in Chechnya in order to win asylum in the United States. "In any case," the Globe writes, "the family from which two alleged bombers emerged very likely should not have been here at all."

The echo chamber of the internet — and the inherent danger of misinformation that goes with it — made itself known in a powerful way in the moments and days following the Boston Marathon bombing this past April. As with any major news event since the rise of social media, inaccurate reports were everywhere, but this time a Reddit post that spread across the internet convinced thousands that a missing student named Sunil Tripathi was suspect number two. The whole episode, which has been pulled apart step-by-step in a new report from The New York Times, makes us question the utility of crowdsourced data like that found on Reddit. However, the real blame may lie with with the journalists who elevated the rumor from the depths of a subreddit via not-so-innocent retweets.

Fighting free expression with free expression, an officer with the Massachusetts State Police who, like many Americans, was upset with Rolling Stone magazine's new cover treatment of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has published a series of photos in Boston Magazine that he believes more accurately represent Tsarnaev's actions and character. Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Sean Murphy said he took the photos, some of which depict a wounded and bleeding Tsarnaev, during the nearly week-long manhunt for the bombing suspects in April.

Most of the images are of police and other law enforcement agencies scouring the Boston area for the suspects. But there are three arresting and graphic images of a bloodied Tsarnaev emerging from the boat in which he hid from authorities in a final stand-off. The first two images show a laser sight squarely in the middle of Tsarnaev's forehead as he raises his arms in apparent surrender, before slumping over the side of the boat. The entire series of 14 images were posted on the website of Boston Magazine on Thursday afternoon under the headline "The Real Face of Terror."

Rolling Stone is facing harsh criticism for publishing what many describe as a rock star-like cover photo of Dzhokhar "Jahar" Tsarnaev — the 19-year-old native Chechen accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15th. The magazine unveiled the cover of its August 1st issue on Tuesday, describing Janet Reitman's lead story as "a riveting and heartbreaking account of how a charming kid with a bright future became a monster." Rolling Stone also highlighted the piece's most salient revelations, but it's the issue's gauzy cover photo that has stirred the most controversy on Twitter and other social media sites.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the chief suspect in the April 15th Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 200, has pled not guilty to 30 counts including using weapons of mass destruction, according to The Boston Globe. Tsarnaev gave his plea in an arraignment in a Boston federal court on Wednesday, in a room full of survivors and victims of the Boston attack, which prosecutors say took place when two pressure cookers filled with shrapnel exploded near the annual marathon's finish line.

In court, Tsarnaev showed up with unkempt hair, a swollen face, and a cast, the AP said in its report. "He appeared nonchalant, almost bored during the hearing," the report said. "He was let out of the courtroom, making a kissing motion with his lips toward his family as he left. His sister sobbed loudly."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the FBI's chief suspect in the April 15th Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured scores more, has been formally indicted by a US grand jury on 30 separate counts, including using weapons of mass destruction and killing four people, as the US District Attorney for Massachusetts just announced on Twitter. The DA held a press conference at 3PM EST in Boston to discuss the indictment, details of which appear below. The 19-year-old chief suspect was previously charged by the Justice Department with carrying out the bombings with help from his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a subsequent police chase.

The Boston Globe reports that in addition to three victims of the bombing, authorities have accused Dzhokhar and Tamerlan of killing an MIT police officer, Sean Collier, in a shootout following the bombing. The indictment cites phrases Dzhokhar is alleged to have written on the inside of the landed boat in which he was captured as his confession to committing the bombings. One of the phrases reads: "Now I don't like killing innocent people but it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [unintelligible] it is allowed;" another says "The US Government is killing our innocent civilians." Dzhokhar was apprehended by authorities on April 19th, who found him in the boat located in a driveway of a house outside Boston, following a near week-long investigation and manhunt.

Three more suspects have been charged in relation to April's Boston Marathon bombings — not for any role in the bombing itself, but for helping to destroy evidence for friend and alleged bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. According to documents released by the FBI, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth students Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov knew Tsarnaev from college. In the wake of the bombing, both these two and a third man named Robel Phillipos apparently realized Tsarnaev was one of the suspects and decided to help him by getting rid of evidence. Now, Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are charged with obstruction of justice, while Phillipos is accused of lying to the police when questioned.

Kadyrbayev had apparently met with Tsarnaev two days after the explosions, before police had announced any leads on the case. The night the FBI released images of its suspects, though, Kadyrbayev texted Tsarnaev to tell him that he looked like one of the bombers. "Lol," Tsarnaev replied, among other things. "You better not text me." Though the details aren't all clear, the three apparently proceeded to Tsarnaev's apartment, possibly spurred by an ominous message that said, "I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it."

The rhetoric in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings is starting to recall the heightened fear that took hold after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. That's especially true in New York City, where the suspected bombers were allegedly planning a second attack.

In a press conference yesterday, both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and police commissioner Ray Kelly used the suspects' alleged plot to make the case for more surveillance cameras. "You’re never going to know where all of our cameras are," Bloomberg said. "And that’s one of the ways you deter people; they just don’t know whether the person sitting next to you is just somebody sitting there or a detective watching."

New York City Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference with Police Commissioner Kelly on Thursday afternoon to report that the surviving suspected bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has admitted that he and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev "spontaneously" planned an attack in Times Square following the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Police Commissioner Kelly says that Dzhokhar has indicated to the FBI that the decision was made following a carjacking last Thursday night to drive to New York and detonate further explosives.

Police Commissioner Kelly said that the men had prepared six explosive devices which they had with them: one pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs. He further reports that surveillance cameras captured footage of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square "with friends" in April of 2012, and that they believe he visited New York City once again in November of 2012. He said that he did not know if Tsarnaev's visits to New York City had any connection to plans of an attack.

All day Sunday, police directed traffic around a blocked-off section of Boylston Street in downtown Boston where bombs had gone off nearly a week earlier, killing three and wounding hundreds. A makeshift memorial had been set up to honor the dead with personal messages and flowers, and old running shoes hung from metal barricades. Similar makeshift memorials were set up in suburbs outside the city proper, at least one designed in the dried blood of a dead suspect.

About a mile northwest from Boston’s ground zero, across the Charles River in Cambridge, a small but notable memorial had been set up. This one lay on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus, on a concrete walkway beside MIT’s Ray and Maria Stata Center. Famous for its Frank Gehry-designed architecture, Stata is all kitty-cornered frames and weirdly metallic boxes, like something out of a futuristic claymation video or Pee-wee’s Playhouse. This memorial seemed out of place. It was set up to honor an MIT police officer, Sean Collier, who had been shot and killed here while on duty, allegedly by the brothers suspected of carrying out the bombings downtown days earlier.

Reddit General Manager Erik Martin has apologized for the Reddit community's reaction to the Boston Marathon bombings, after amateur investigators frustrated the public and law enforcement with a flood of misinformation about the perpetrators of the attacks.

"Though started with noble intentions," Martin writes, "some of the activity on Reddit fueled online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties." In particular, Martin calls out Sunil Triphathi, who was pegged as a suspect by amateur online detectives on 4chan and Reddit — information that spread quickly online. "We have apologized privately to the family of missing college student Sunil Triphathi, as have various users and moderators," Martin writes. "We want to take this opportunity to apologize publicly for the pain they have had to endure."

Since the second Boston bombing suspect was apprehended on Friday, there's been a wave of support, empathy, and even attraction shown for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. #Freejahar tweets are pouring in every minute; young girls are declaring their desires; conspiracy theorists continue to cry that Tsarnaev is innocent; and at the very least a large portion of the online public appears to be on the fence about the young suspect's alleged guilt.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings (pictured above, at left), has been charged as a civilian, not an enemy combatant, and will face trial in federal court, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. The charges were announced moments ago during the White House's daily press briefing, as the Boston.com Metrodesk reported. The US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts just tweeted the specific charges as "conspiring to use weapon of mass destruction against persons and property in U.S. resulting in death."

The charges were read to Tsarnaev in his hospital bed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, according to Reuters. Tsarneav remains in serious condition, as per the latest update from the FBI following his confrontation with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown, Massachusetts late Friday before his capture.

Internet donations are pouring in for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, with crowdfunding campaigns on various websites raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to help pay for their medical care.

Bucks for Bauman, which was established to help bombing victim and key eyewitness Jeff Bauman, has raised more than $250,000 of its $1 million goal in two days. As of this writing, more than 6,000 people have donated over $275,000 to aid Bauman in his recovery.

Now that second Boston bombing suspect has been apprehended, there are still lots of unanswered questions swirling. One of them is whether or not he has been read his Miranda rights, which are designed to protect a suspect's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights under the US Constitution. The answer as of this writing that the bombing suspect is not being read his rights. "There is a public safety exemption in cases of national security and potential charges involving acts of terrorism," said US Attorney Carmen Ortiz at a press conference tonight, "And so the government has that opportunity right now, though I believe that the suspect has been taken to a hospital."

I’ve lived in Boston (or one of its neighboring towns) for almost 14 years, and I can’t remember a time that the entire MBTA, our public transportation system, shut down. No trains, no buses, no commuter rail. Maybe on 9/11, and parts of the system have been out of service during particularly brutal winter storms (or the occasional hurricane), but I can’t recall a day like today. Thanks to a wild manhunt for two young men who allegedly detonated explosives during the Boston Marathon, the entire region was held hostage for nearly a day until law enforcement was eventually able to tighten the noose.

The days immediately following Monday’s attack were relatively quiet and as normal as they can be — considering bombs were detonated in the heart of New England’s biggest city — but that all changed late Thursday evening. By Friday morning, sections of Boston and its surrounding cities (including Cambridge and Watertown, where an MIT police officer was killed and where the suspect was eventually found) were under a “shelter-in-place” order. No one was to leave their house for any reason, businesses were encouraged to stay closed, and, of course, the MBTA was completely closed. Eventually, this order encompassed all of the city of Boston, and hundreds of thousands of people found themselves huddled in their homes, letting law enforcement do its work.

After a massive manhunt that began on the night of the 18th, a second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has reportedly been captured by police following a residential standoff in Watertown, Massachusetts, NBC News reports from the scene. The FBI has confirmed that 19-year-old bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev is in custody, and The Washington Post reports that Tsarnaev was wounded when captured.

According to CBS News, the FBI actually investigated one of the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects two years ago. 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev — the elder brother who was shot and killed in today's ongoing manhunt — was questioned by the FBI about potential extremist ties at the request of a yet-unnamed foreign government.

According to the publication, the FBI failed to find any evidence of such ties, but his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva claims that the FBI continued their investigation, telling Russia Today that her family was under continual FBI surveillance. "They used to come [to our] home, they used to talk to me... they were telling me that he was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him." The mother claims that the FBI set up her sons, and that both are innocent. You can hear her words in the video below.