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| CORRECTS ID OF ATTORNEY TO MIRIAM CONRAD INSTEAD OF JUDY CLARKE - This courtroom sketch depicts Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev standing with his lawyer Miriam Conrad, left, before Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler, right, during his arraignment in federal court Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in Boston. The 19-year-old has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, and could face the death penalty. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- His arm in a cast and his face swollen, a blase-looking Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing in a
seven-minute proceeding that marked his first appearance in public
since his capture in mid-April.
As survivors
of the bombing looked on, Tsarnaev, 19, gave a small, lopsided smile to
his two sisters upon arriving in the courtroom. He appeared to have a
jaw injury and there was swelling around his left eye and cheek.
Leaning
into the microphone, he told a federal judge, "Not guilty" in his
Russian accent and said it over and over as the charges were read. Then
he was led away in handcuffs, making a kissing gesture toward his family
with his lips. One of his sisters sobbed loudly, resting her head on a
woman seated next to her.
Tsarnaev, who has
been hospitalized since his capture with wounds suffered in a shootout
and getaway attempt, faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon
of mass destruction to kill, in connection with the April 15 attack,
which left three people dead and more than 260 wounded. He could get the
death penalty if prosecutors choose to pursue it.
The
proceedings took place in a heavily guarded courtroom packed not only
with victims but with their families, police officers, and members of
the public and the media.
The Russian
immigrant and former college student looked much as he did in a photo
widely circulated after his arrest, his hair curly and unkempt. Wearing
an orange prison jumpsuit, he appeared nonchalant, almost bored, during
the hearing. The cast covered his left forearm, hand and fingers.
The bombing victims showed little reaction in the courtroom after a federal marshal warned them against any outbursts.
Liz
Norden, the mother of two men who lost their right legs in the
bombings, said afterward: "I actually felt sick to my stomach."
MIT Police Chief John DiFava, who was also in the courtroom, said Tsarnaev looked "smug."
"I
didn't see a lot of remorse. I didn't see a lot of regret," he said.
"It just seemed to me that if I was in that position, I would have been a
lot more nervous, certainly scared."
DiFava
added: "I just wanted to see him. I wanted to see the person that so
coldly and callously killed four people, one of whom being an officer of
mine."
Authorities say Tsarnaev orchestrated
the bombing along with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died
following a gun battle with police three days after the attack. Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev was arrested on April 19, hiding in a bloodstained boat in a
suburban backyard after a manhunt that paralyzed much of the Boston
area.
Tsarnaev is also charged in the killing
of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer and the
carjacking of a motorist during their getaway attempt.
His
two sisters were in court wearing traditional Muslim scarves called
hijabs. One was carrying a baby; the other wiped away tears with a
tissue. Tsarnaev's parents remained back in Russia.
Tsarnaev's
lawyer Judy Clarke, an expert in death penalty cases, asked that the
judge enter not-guilty pleas for him, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne
Bowler said: "I would ask him to answer."
On
the same day as the arraignment, Boston's police commissioner appeared
on Capitol Hill and complained to a Senate panel that the Justice
Department failed to share information on terrorism threats with local
officials before the bombing.
"There is a gap
with information sharing at a higher level while there are still
opportunities to intervene in the planning of these terrorist events,"
Commissioner Edward F. Davis III said.
Reporters
and spectators began lining up for seats in the courtroom at 7:30 a.m.
as a dozen Federal Protective Service officers and bomb-sniffing dogs
surrounded the courthouse. Four hours before the 3:30 p.m. hearing, the
defendant arrived at the courthouse in a four-vehicle motorcade.
About
a dozen Tsarnaev supporters cheered as the motorcade arrived. The
demonstrators yelled, "Justice for Jahar!" as Tsarnaev is known. One
woman held a sign that said, "Free Jahar."
Lacey
Buckley said she traveled from her home in Wenatchee, Wash., to attend
the arraignment. She said she believes he is innocent. "I just think so
many of his rights were violated. They almost murdered an unarmed kid in
a boat," she said.
A group of friends who
were on the high school wrestling team with Tsarnaev at Cambridge Rindge
and Latin waited in line for hours, hoping to get a seat.
One of them, Hank Alvarez, said Tsarnaev was calm, peaceful and apolitical in high school.
"Just knowing him, it's hard for me to face the fact that he did it," said Alvarez, 19, of Cambridge.
Prosecutors
say Tsarnaev, a Muslim, wrote about his motivations for the bombing on
the inside walls and beams of the boat. He scrawled that the U.S.
government was "killing our innocent civilians," and also wrote: "We
Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."
Martin
Richard, 8, Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu, 23, were killed
by the two bombs, which were fashioned out of pressure cookers,
gunpowder, nails and other shrapnel. Numerous victims lost legs.
