When Judy Clarke started with her opening statement in the Tsarnaev trial on March 4, the expectations were high that the defense would finally break the silence about its strategy, refute the accusations in toto or at least in part, and clarify that they were fighting for more than just

Next Wednesday, March 4, the hot phase of the Tsarnaev trial is scheduled to start, and after the defense’s last-minute efforts to achieve a change of venue due to massive prejudice of the coming jury were rebuffed by the appeals court there is little doubt that the opening statements of

When the courtroom for the Tsarnaev trial opened last Friday, the media crowd was expecting an indignant judge telling off the defense for their last – the third – motion for change of venue. The day before O’Toole had chided the motion, calling it “improper” because it allegedly revealed the

What exactly is “Boston Strong”? From Wikipedia: April 15, 2013, the slogan “Boston Strong” appeared as a highly popular hashtag on Twitter and rapidly spread around the world. An expression of Boston’s unity after the bombings, the slogan showed up on T-shirts and other products, and was emblazoned on the

The latest defense motion comes with quite an unusual request: to disallow demonstrators to gather in front of the courthouse, display there protest signs or engage in discussions with attendees of the courtroom. The reasoning is that their “insulting and inflammatory messages”  might result in an unfair trial because of

In a kind of déjà vu, the defense again has filed a new motion to address leaks from law enforcement sources to the media (the 3rd, the 4th? – I stopped counting), this time in reference to a new piece of Michele McPhee published in the Boston Magazine: “Inside the

In the last Boston Bombing News, jane24 reported from the 9th status conference. A central issue at the hearing was the disclosure of witness lists. The prosecution demanded to get a list of non-expert defense witnesses prior to the trial. In a previous exchange of motions, the defense attourneys had

Michele McPhee is, according to her website, a “Best selling author, Emmy-nominated Investigative Reporter, Award-winning Columnist and Magazine Writer.” She is “the recipient of many journalism awards, including the Society of the Silurian’s Feature News Award for her New York Daily News 9-11 coverage. She was awarded First Place for Serious Column in

With his latest orders, Judge George O’Toole has finished all speculations about location and begin of the Tsarnaev trial and confirmed the low-level expectations of his critics: there will be no change of venue – despite grave objections of law pundits like Neal Vidmar – and the two-month postponement of

Judge George O’Toole continues to turn his distinguished, powerful and most responsible position into an impotent administration post to accommodate Carmen Ortiz and rubber-stamp her wishes. His latest order nullifies the testimony of law professor Neil Vidmar who argued for a change of venue in a 40-page motion of the