by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
GumshoeNews is sorry to report the death, at age 87, of Judge Juan Torruella. He grew up in Puerto Rico and became an appellate judge in the federal court in Boston in 1984. A decade on, he was made Chief Judge. First Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Howard has called him “a wise decision-maker, a brilliant scholar, and a passionate participant in the pursuit of justice.”
Judge Torruella retired in 2001 but was called back on duty at the time of the Marathon appeal. (I do not know if it was specifically for that case that he came out of retirement.)
The cause of Judge Torruella’s death has not been publicized. Allow me to respectfully use this occasion to report on the current state of the Marathon case.
As reported here at GumshoeNews, the appeal of the Death Sentence of Dzhokhar (aka Jahar) Tsarnaev was held on December 12, 2019. The three-judge panel consisted of Chief Judge Juan Torruella, Judge William Kayatta, and Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson. They listened to arguments by Jahar’s new “defense” lawyer, Daniel Habib.
As far as I can glean, the defense only appealed the death sentence, not the verdict. The main cause given for appeal was that the trial should not have been held in Boston, owing to saturation media coverage. Another problem was the fact that some jurors had said, during jury selection, that they understood the accused to be guilty.
It took until August, 2020, for the court to rule against the death penalty for Jahar Tsarneav. As reported here, the three-judge panel remanded it to the district court. According journalist Nate Raymond of Reuters News Service:
“The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upheld much of Tsarnaev’s conviction but ordered a lower-court judge to hold a new trial strictly over what sentence Tsarnaev should receive for the death penalty-eligible crimes he was convicted of.”
Meanwhile, however, the prosecutor – that is, the DOJ, in the person of Boston’s US Attorney Lelling – moved to appeal the decision that relieved Jahar from Death Row.
To do that, Lelling has to get the US Supreme Court to take the case. Indeed, he requested this and we will know by December 28, 2020 whether 4 of the 9 judges say Yes.
(That’s the number required to hear the case; 5 is the number for a ruling. SCOTUS takes only a small fraction of the cases offered to it.)
I would not put even ten dollars on them saying Yes. It seems to me that the Powers That Be will never want to look into what really happened at the Marathon. As I explain in my book The Soul of Boston and the Marathon Bombing (free download), the prisoner is a patsy. He did not do the bombing and even a cursory look at the 2013 trial transcript will tell you that the court behaved disgracefully.
As for Jahar, now age 26, no one can say how he reacts to the news of being saved from Death Row – or if he even knows of it! He is kept in extraordinary and completely unjustified solation. His defenders give us no information.
I promise to work harder on this, but let’s wait till the November 3 election-distraction is over. In case anyone wants to meet me to discuss “strategy,” I will hang out at the Boston Public Library, on Friday November 6 (or 6 November, as we say in Australia).
Look for me standing outside the BPL’s 700 Boylston Street door at 3.33pm. If the weather is a bit nippy, I will go inside and sit at the tables and chairs near NEWSFEED. I will be pretending to eat a sandwich so I don’t have to wear a mask. (Ah, also a free download of my Covid book here.)
Repeating the time: Friday, November 6, 2020 at 3.33. Please don’t leave me lonely!
To see what I look like, just check yesterday’s Gumshoe article entitled “The Committee of 23”. The photo was taken outside the US District Court house in NH in 2019 when I filed my civil RICO suit, Maxwell v FBI et al, objecting to the Marathon false flag. Why do I do things like that? Because I was brought up Catholic in Boston in the old days, and that was how one dealt with stuff like dishonesty. (Honest!)
Torruella Resisted Colonialism in Puerto Rico
It’s not to be ruled out that Judge Torruella had a rebellious spirit. He earlier asked for mercy for a political prisoner and now I see at a Hispanic website that he objected to legislation. (Possibly he did this during his 2001-2017 stint as a retiree.) I quote from an article at elnuevoda.com. “Judge Juan Torruella Calls for Civil Resistance”:
“Juan Torruella, judge in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, encouraged Puerto Ricans to establish a ‘civil resistance’ and ‘economic boycott’ movement, in order to tackle the ‘degrading’ and ‘derogatory’ colonial treatment that, according to him, is embodied by the federal PROMESA Act and by the enforcement of an Oversight Board in the Island.”
I am sorry not to have had a chance to meet the judge. It would have been good to learn his true reaction to the material submitted on 2017 by myself and two other amici and especially the affidavit sent in by Aunt Maret Tsarnaeva, as counselled by Attorney Jack Graham, as printed here by Paul Craig Roberts.
Anyway, this judge took Jahar off Death Row, and unless the US Supreme Court says “Go back onto Death Row, Jahar,” it will be to the credit of Torruella and his two co-panelists that the innocent is allowed to live.
Vale, Judge.
Please note, in regard to the link to Paul Crag Roberts’ website. When you get there, scroll down to read Aunt Maret’s affidavit. But don’t stop there. Scroll further to see the description of the Marathon that she also submitted as an amicus curiae. (The word “humdinger” does not do justice.)
I think Paul Craig Roberts was the first person to break the story (circa 2015). Jim Fetzer also published the affidavit at Veterans Today. Dee McLachlan saw it at PCR and that it how it came to may attention and stirred me the hell up. Global research.ca subsequently published the aunt’s work, but it has not led to the massive attention it deserves.
You may recall that Maret served me her homemade borscht in Canada, but now she has returned to the Russian Federation.
May God help us all.
Off-topic [??]
This is JP’s best satire so far:
Andrew Lawrence: (for example)
With the re-election of Jacinda Adern in N.Z, it is clear that the ‘Intelligence Disease’ has been well and truly eradicated in that country.
Everyone knows Jahar must be free and compensated.
The good judge Tourrella, having risen from oppression, saw the obvious and acted accordingly.
If only there are more like him in positions of influence. Difficult now days, where the rich are always innocent and the poor guilty for crimes they did not even commit. The law – there is no law, just a wild west where money and guns rule and the innocent are victims of injustice.
And therein lies my argument, 56. “The law — there is no law.”‘ Yes there is. If you read the law, you will find that it suits all needs. But we have to enforce it.
‘Course I’m not referring to the new omnibus law in Australia — oh, did it pass yet?
Even laws like that — certainly the anti-terrorism laws — have some goodies in them that may backfire on the powerful. But not until we get the notion of our power to enforce.
Was just thinking about him yesterday–so thankful for his ruling–and all of the security clearance restrictions on Jahar’s later federal defenders. Interesting number of judges in Boston who acknowledge no fair trial in O’Toole’s court. Who all would be arguing in support of reversal of death penalty at Supreme Court? How’s the filed RICO case going? Standard MO in Op Mockingbird intel by design. Sibel Edmonds referred to BMB as “Operation Gladio B”. F. William Engdahl on acknowledgement of Graham E. Fuller and Uncle Ruslan Tsarni. Given Judge Torruella’s time on the bench, could he possibly have been surprised at anything…? Judge Juan Torruella del Valle Sr, sorry to see you go, but rest in peace nevertheless.
I am entering this comment 16 months after the article in case anyone comes across it out of context.
The US Supreme Court did indeed take the case and will give its ruling by the end of this term, June 2022.
I had not realized that Jahar did not get what each Death Row prisoner is entitled to get, namely one appeal. His public defenders — and I use that term loosely, believe me — never asked for an appeal of the conviction, but only of the sentence.
Thus I think (but am not sure) that Jahar is still entitled to that one appeal which may go under the heading of “habeas corpus.”
I’m pretty sure that he was not intended to survive the “chase” of April 18-19, 2013. He was meant to be killed in what I take to be the staged shoot-out on Laurel St. That having failed, he was meant to have been shot by the 228 bullets aimed at his boat. So he is kind of a miracle survivor. Now age 27. Very incommunicando.
And this is America.