by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
The following is the opening of the 911 Commission Report. Chapter 1’s title is “We Have Some Planes.”
September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the Twin Towers … in New York City…. In Sarasota, Florida, President George W. Bush went for an early morning run. For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better…. Among the travelers were Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari, who arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine….
My day today, December 12, 2019, started as a beautiful cold day in Boston. Having been very, very politely stripped of my cell phone at the entrance to the Moakley federal courthouse, I ascended, as though to heaven, to the 7th Floor. Stepping off the elevator, one is greeted by the gorgeous scene, down below, of a marina with boats plying their way over rippling water.
The Moakley is where the First Circuit Court holds appeals of federal cases. I had hastened to the United States in July 2018, to get ready for “my role” (as amicus curiae) in what I mistakenly thought would be an August 2018 appeal of Jahar Tsarnaev’s conviction for the 2013 Marathon bombing. His trial had taken place in this District Court, also in the Moakley, in 2015.
The Proceedings Today
Oral argument was held on Thursday, December 12, 2019 — the Defenders having won various extensions of time to prepare. It occupied only two hours — 45 minutes for the Defense lawyer Daniel Habib to state the appellate plaint, one hour for the Government’s lawyer William Glaser to knock it down, and 15 minutes for Habib to respond.
I counted about 150 persons in the courtroom and saw about 30 more in an overflow courtroom, watching via video link. Ten persons sat in “the well” , including the Chief of Terrorism. (I am unfamiliar with his position.)
A United States Marshal walked around the gallery saying “I don’t want to see any cell phones.” I take it that was directed at men and women who work in the Moakley, as outside visitors would not have got their phone past the metal detector.
It was hard to tell who was who, in the audience. If it was carrying a down coat, it came from outside. If it was taking notes like mad, it was a journalist. If it looked rag-tag, it was a protestor — except I did not see any rag-tag types. Two protestors stood on the street. Those were not the amputees who made an eye-catching scene outside the Moakley in 2015.
Awaiting the Ruling
The three judges on the Appeals panel are Chief Judge Juan Torruella, Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson, and Judge William Kayatta. As far as I know, the panel has unlimited time in which to come to a judgment. Today was the only “hearing.”
It is open to the court to vacate the original judgement or to remand it to the district judge who would then (I think) make a fresh decision as to proper venue. Even should the appeal result in a finding that Boston was an unsuitable venue, this does not rule out Boston as the venue of a retrial, five years onward, presuming people’s feelings have quieted down.
Judges Thompson and Kayatta asked many detailed questions about the venue. It was pointed out that Timothy McVeigh’s trial for blowing up a Federal Building in Oklahoma had to be shipped out to Denver, because so many local families had lost a relative in the bombing.
Daniel Habib opened by offering three reasons to overturn Jahar’s death penalty. 1. Boston was the wrong venue. 2. The Waltham murders should have been considered. 3. There was misbehavior (not his word) of two jurors.
It is not my plan to record for Gumshoe the specific arguments about those jurors, one of whom also served as the foreperson of the jury.
She had failed to say in her Jury-Selection Questionnaire that she lamented in a Facebook remark that being at work on April 19 (manhunt day ’13) was hard because her kids at home, in Dorchester, had to “shelter in place.” She also wrote in social media that Jahar was a piece of garbage.
It does seem to me that the judges are likely to rule in favor of the Defense on that one issue. They referred to the District Judge’s “abuse of discretion,” never mentioning the name Judge George O’Toole.
That surprised me. I thought discretion meant discretion. I did not know you could abuse it. Anyway, Glaser argued cogently that there was no abuse, but Habib argued even more cogently that there was.
Two Outstanding Lawyers
“All rise. God bless the United States and God bless this honorable court” was both the opening greeting and the closing greeting of today’s session. Just as Judge Torruella nearly got to the door to depart, he came back to the bench and said “I forgot to congratulate both lawyers; they did an excellent job.
Indeed they did. Both Habib and Glaser are young and handsome, perfectly articulate, well versed in the relevant precedents about choice of venue and juror misconduct, and willing and able to pour their soul into … um … .trivia.
And thereby hangs the tale. I went home shocked and heartbroken. Jahar Tsarnaev is surely, surely, innocent of the Marathon bombing and all 30 counts of crime with which he was charged. Nary a word about that. I believe I even heard Judge Torruella say that guilt was already established by the boat wall confession.
Oh please.
Allow me to say why I felt so bad in court today. It is NOT because there was a roomful of sneaky bastards. There WERE NO sneaky bastards. The whole scene was respectable in every way. If I hadn’t read Mary Maxwell’s stuff (sorry), or our Canadians’ stuff, I could have sat through the two hours today thinking everything was cricket.
The people in the room were well dressed. There was no tension that I could discern. But, in my view, it should have been a day of high tension. Or at least name-calling and maybe a round of pie-throwing.
As I walked out onto the street — where, by the way, there were at least 20 photographers — the words in my head were “Where did my beautiful country go? How could America have come to this?”
The New Todashev and Dias Material
For the benefit of Gumshoers who already know the case, I must report two things I heard from the bench today that I never knew, and do not have the research tools to check on at the moment. One, stated by Judge Thompson (I think), has to do with Jahar’s buddy Dias having passed the word early on to the authorities about Todashev. Huh?
On page 42 of my new book The Soul of Boston and the Marathon Bombing, we see:
“Three of the boys have finished jail and been deported: Azmat Tazhayakov, “Cabbie” Matanov, and Dias Kadybayev. Why aren’t all decent Bostonians yelling and screaming about this?” (I mean in general that the pals were gagged.)
On page 118, I discuss an item from Heather Frizzell’s website “USvTSARNAEV.org
“Frizzell writes: ‘At the time of Silva’s testimony, Dias was in federal custody awaiting sentencing, a perfect witness to corroborate Silva’s story.’ (But you don’t think they would call him!) ” Silva had said in testimony:
“When I got back, I put the marijuana in the — Dias’ car’s trunk, and then I talked to the defendant [best mate] very shortly. He wasn’t really talking to me much. I was trying to get into a deeper conversation with him but he said he was in a rush. And I asked him [Jahar] about the gun and he gave me another excuse on why he couldn’t — why he didn’t bring it that day.”
I apologize that I never knew that Dias was similarly “helpful” for providing info about the Waltham murders.
The other is that I heard one of the judges today, I think it was the Chief Judge, say that there are RECORDINGS of Todashev’s near-death confession. And that in the recordings we find Todashev saying that Tamerlan recruited him, Todashev, his boxing buddy, to help commit the Waltham murders. Furthermore, that Tamerlan’s motive for the Waltham murders was religious and/or jihadist. Wow.
Is there any reliable evidence to support any of this? Logic does not support it. Wasn’t it said by police that $5,000 in cash was “dropped” on the bodies of the three (throat-slit) Waltham decedents. Why do that? Are the boys so drowning in money that they actually throw it away?
God help us. This business can only get worse.
It was said today that Tamerlan “committed the crime” in Waltham. I am certain Tamerlan was never charged with that crime and was never tried or convicted. Since when do law-trained people state that someone “committed a crime” with nothing to back it up? But, as usual, there was no one on the bench or in the well to challenge it. Jahar himself, at his 2015 trial, rarely had anyone jump in to challenge a BLATANTLY not-cricket statement.
Looking around at the audience today, I wondered: Is there anyone here who in the last two years, say, has experienced thrill or exhilaration at the very sound of the word Truth?
If yes, would they please gimme a buzz at MaxwellMaryLLB@gmail.com?
1) Was Dias “expected” to deliver such testimony for lighter sentence?
2) Boat at 67 Franklin was in that rear driveway for a week a) while neighbors had been required to temporarily abandon their homes.b) FBI was in charge and in custody on the property—why not immediately relocated as crucial evidence c) Photos/videos of 3 or 4 different faces as process of capture arrestees(in original Jahar video, he had no blood on hoodie/appeared uninjured and was not pulled out of boat by an officer, but had followed orders and jumped down out of boat on own power—that video was originally shown on CBS) d) How can Toruella be so sure Jahar wrote boat note? Handwriting analysis or was he ordered to write it…
3) Remember your article referencing B.Baker that Mess and Weismann had visited a restaurant—Mess not his usual bantering self and looked worried according to owner. Met with unfamiliar-to-abode heavy-set, mustached, bald man and was last time he saw Mess who had been like a son to him.
If one pleads guilty to the actual crime, no need to present evidence. That all becomes superfluous.
Are you sitting down Peter? Jahar never pleaded guilty. Everybody thought he did, including me. Nope.
“in original Jahar video, he had no blood on hoodie/appeared uninjured and was not pulled out of boat by an officer, but had followed orders and jumped down out of boat on own power—that video was originally shown on CBS”
Confirmation of what I’ve suspected all along
Personally, Berry, I am not ready to believe what Ms Ashmore says without more evidence of the CBS video. If Jahar jumped off the boat, how come Defense Motion #13 and Motion #295 say:
“Jahar was in critical condition with life threatening gun shot wounds to his head, mouth, pharynx, face, severe soft tissue injury, jaw, throat, left hand, both legs. Also, his scapula (shoulder blade) was shattered, apparently by gunshot. Damage to cranial nerves required that his left eye be sutured closed, and his jaw was wired shut.”
Mind you, we could ask Jahar right now in prison if he was a boat-jumper, but then of course there is no way to communicate with him.
(The expert on Jahar’s injuries is Cheryl Dean, although her research can’t unseal the sealed. Google the Gumshoe website for “Cheryl Dean.”)
Dearest Mary. Only you can write with such humor about such a dramatic case! I love you. Now about Dias being aware that Tamerlan committed the triple murder, you can read it in the STILL SEALED document.
Not Dias nor Azamat were called to testify about the mysterious gun (the 2-year old badly rusted gun) because they would have dismantle the government’s narrative.
I feel hopeful after listening to the oral arguments.
Did you watch it live-stream, Josee? Is there now a copy on Youtube?
Had you ever heard that Todashev made a recording? Twenty-five dollars says he never did. Come on, Somebody (not Josee), bet me, bet me.
Ms Lepine knows her Moakley. Hey Josee, you gave us this almost 4 years ago:
https://gumshoenews.com/2016/01/10/when-i-was-in-solitary-north-of-the-border/
The shocking thing is the hanging judges care nothing for justice, allowing murders to be placed beyond reach. I’d say hang ’em but they are all ready dead as humans. Nice suits you say, they must like the open casket look.
Just as bad in Adelaide SA, even as we speak, Simon. More news from the front today — the judges there are not hanging judges, they are “cutting” judges, if you know what I mean.
So, a 3-fold affirmation that those in control have thrown out the baby and kept the bathwater:
1) The cell-phone prohibition( the dependence on a certain level of old-fashioned ambience)
2) The “abuse of discretion” gaff
3) The complete blind-sight re the fact that a jihad operation would, by definition, have been openly “owned” before any of the so-called authorities could blink
Mary – your tenacity in attempting to give this poor young man a voice is truly commendable. The explanatory evidence which you provided previously already convinced me of his innocence. I have personal experience of the way governments create patsies to serve their narrative. And yes, the boat ‘confession’ is utterly laughable. I agree with Simon – the soulless judges have already died – their rot will no doubt infect their ‘judgement’. One thing I know….the innocent who die unnecessarily as a result of others corruption become very adept at ‘haunting’ those who wronged them. Speaking of haunting, I heard something about one of my childhood abusers today. This particular creature likes his victims VERY young. Apparently he is a mere shadow of his former self. Apt given he shadowed me for most of my life.
GumshoeNews hereby offers a banana split to that abuser if he will come out of the shadows and present his case to us.
Hey Buddy, how did you get started in this racket? Have you felt under pressure for the last four decades (Rachel is mid-forties now)? We do know of your boss in Adelaide being very mean to another enslaved perp.
I actually feel sympathy for you, as I personally know several MK-Ultra victims who were forced to hurt others. They did not want to do so and feel regret even now, more than 50 years later.
Do you recall survivor Svali saying that when she pleased her perp she was asked to name what she would like as a reward and she said “I want time off hurting other kids.”
I know for sure that if I was guilty of a triple murder, I would be sure to show up voluntarily for an interview with the FBI.
Peter, so there she is, the switchboard operator at the J Edgar Hoover Building (it’s still called that) in Washington DC, and you say “Hi, I want to speak to an agent about the triple murder I just did,” and she says, “Sure, I’ll put you through”. Is that what you meant?
In desperation, after exiting the Moakley (Dec 12), I emailed a good pal with the (bordering-on-suicidal) message “Why go on?”
His reply: “Standing up to injustice is not a result-oriented attitude or activity. It is a normal person’s natural inclination.”
Talk about taking a question literally!
Simply awesome, we sway and add friends.
To Berry: I think the prohibition on cell phones is warranted. I know a guy whose ringtone is the sound of a toilet flushing. Imagine if it rang during a solemn moment in court.
.
I’d like this for my ringtone.
Fish, can you top that?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if music like that was played in the local courthouse waiting room, Centrelink, and every other depressing government venue where people are, instead, bombarded with tedious television drivel whilst they’re kept waiting for hours on end .
Talk about mind control!
How about this one, Berry, for courtroom waiting rooms?
.
In regard to truth — truth as such — Fredrick Toben wrote an article for Gumshoe on July 18 this year in which he praised the late Sir Douglas Wright. Toben quoted Wright:
“‘A governing body of an institution devoted to truth and justice is corrupt if it obstructs enquiry into its stewardship. … Such state of affairs is the antithesis of democratic processes and places the society in imminent danger.’
“It is in this sense that I [Toben] personally ask: Where are our present-day Wrights?”
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