Community Corner

How Should Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Be Tried?

Should the 19-year-old bomber be treated as an enemy combatant even though he is a U.S. citizen?

Now that the city of Boston is breathing a sigh of relief and trying to get back to normal a week after the Boston Marathon bombings, the political debate on what to do with the alleged bomber who survived begins.

Greer-Taylors Patch reports that even before the capture of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev Friday night, the fallout had begun. On his Twitter feed, Sen. Lindsey Graham drew criticism for suggesting the suspect be treated as an enemy combatant and not be granted his Miranda rights.

Intelligence experts and media said there was no way the suspect would not be given his Miranda rights. The Obama Administration has a clear policy of handling suspects on American soil with the normal judicial process, they said.

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Treating the suspect as a combatant would allow intelligence officers to get more information from him.

"If the Boston suspect has ties to overseas terror organizations, he could be treasure trove of information," read a tweet from his account, GrahamBlog. Other tweets from Graham read:

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The least of my worries is a criminal trial which will likely be held years from now.
It is vital he be questioned for intelligence gathering purposes about possible future plots.
Now that the suspect is in custody, the last thing I want is for him to remain silent.

It is not clear at this time, however, whether the 19-year-old's condition would ever be such that he could be questioned. Speaking with Politico today, Graham said Chechen fighters are among the “most involved” in supporting “international jihad.”

“We’ve seen them in Afghanistan, we’ve seen them in Iraq, they show up all over the place,” Graham told the publication.

The brothers were in the country legally and the one taken into custody became a naturalized citizen in September 2012.

What do you think? In cases such as this where the suspect is a naturalized American citizen should he still be treated as an enemy combatant?

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