Report: Bombing Suspect's Lawyers Negotiating Plea Deal to Waive Death Penalty

Monday, 29 Apr 2013 07:33 PM
By Paul Scicchitano

NBC News is reporting that attorneys for accused Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are discussing a possible deal in which federal prosecutors might consider waiving the death penalty in exchange for a “full accounting” of the attack that left three people dead and 264 people injured.

Citing legal sources, correspondent Pete Williams reported on “NBC Nightly News” that prosecutors and lawyers for Tsarnaev “have begun very early discussions about a possible deal in which he could avoid the death penalty in return for a full accounting to the FBI of what happened and why as investigators continue working to find those answers for themselves.”

Dzhokhar was charged with federal terrorism offenses last week following a heated debate in which some prominent Republican lawmakers called for the suspect to be treated as an enemy combatant, which would have potentially given investigators more latitude to question him about other plots.

The suspect suffered multiple gunshot wounds before being taken into custody in a dramatic confrontation with police four days after he and his older brother, Tamerlan, reportedly detonated two bombs near the finish line of the famed race. The elder brother was subsequently killed in a shootout with police.

Meanwhile, Williams also reported that an FBI team conducted a search of the house where Tamerlan’s widow, Katherine Russell, has been living in Rhode Island since the attack.

While Russell has said she was shocked by the attack and had no idea her late husband was planning it, law enforcement officials took a sample of her DNA for comparison against a sample of female DNA found on a fragment of one of the pressure cooker bombs that exploded on April 15, according to Williams.

He cautioned, however, that the DNA may have come from employees at one of the stores where the parts for the bombs were purchased.

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