Tsarnaev’s Public Defender Will Focus On His Age, Emotional Health

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s public defender is expected to be supplied by the Federal Public Defender Office for the Districts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, the office’s spokeswoman confirmed Saturday — and the teen’s age and emotional state will likely be a focus of his defense team.

Charges have not yet been filed against the surviving Tsarnaev, whose brother died in the lead up to yesterday’s tense Watertown standoff, but Tsarnaev will be appointed a public defender in a case that has raised some scary questions about treatment of a naturalized American citizen for a crime committed on American soil.

Since it was revealed that Tsarnaev was captured alive, the only surviving suspect after gunfire and blasts erupted Thursday night in the hunt for the two men, the handling of his case has been a matter of intense speculation. Sens. Lindsay Graham and John McCain, both Republicans, have advocated for the teen to be treated as an “enemy combatant” — somewhat of a gray legal term that has sharply grown prominent in the years since September 11.

Not all Americans support going outside traditional judicial measures in the case currently being pulled together in Boston — New York criminal lawyer Robert Gottlieb explained to Reuters that how Tsarnaev is treated in court has implications for all US citizens:

“Our federal courts have proven to be more effective in dispensing speedy justice in terrorism cases than secret tribunals … There’s absolutely no need or justification to declare him an enemy combatant and to deprive our justice system of the opportunity to render a fair verdict.”

Much speculation in the media has centered around Tsarnaev’s potential malleability in relation to his older brother, Tamerlan, who was 26 at the time of his death. It’s further been speculated that his age — just a year above the legal cutoff for being considered a minor — will be part of the defense as well.