Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged with murder and other crimes stemming from his role in the deadly 2013 bombings.
Now, Tsarnaev the only surviving Boston Marathon Bomber has filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the federal government.
In his hand-written complaint, Tsarnaev, now 27, claims to have been subject to “disturbing” and “unprofessional” treatment while incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex Florence in Colorado. Also known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” Florence is a high-security “supermax” prison known for its stringent security measures and high-profile inmates.
Tsarnaev alleges that Florence guards—along with the prison warden—have subjected him to “unlawful, unreasonable, and discriminatory” actions and behaviors.
Among Tsarnaev’s principal complaints is the confiscation of a white baseball cap and bandana. Tsarnaev says he purchased both items in the prison commissary and is therefore entitled to continue using and wearing them as he sees fit.
The alleged abusive behavior began when a prison official confiscated a white ball cap and a bandana, Tsarnaev wrote in the Jan. 4 filing. The unit manager who took the items said “I was disrespecting the FBI and the victims in your case,” Tsarnaev wrote. He did not mention in the filing that he had worn a white ball cap during the violent Boston spree.
The loss of the cap caused him “a great deal of mental stress and anxiety,” Tsarnaev wrote, saying that he has suffered a mental and physical decline.
Tsarnaev in March amended his filing to add more defendants, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The DOJ alleged that Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan placed homemade bombs among the spectators at the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. The bombs exploded, killing three people and injuring hundreds more. The brothers remained on the run for several days, during which they murdered a police officer and carjacked a man.
The spree ended when the elder Tsarnaev brother was killed and the younger was captured.
After a sensational trial, the surviving Tsarnaev brother was sentenced to death for his part in the rampage. A court tossed out the death sentence last year, citing issues with how the jury was chosen. Prosecutors appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that the death sentence be upheld. On Monday, the court agreed to hear the appeal.
Three days after the convicted bomber filed his first court complaint regarding the ball cap, federal officials quietly updated the DOJ’s public page on the case against Dzhokar Tsarnaev.
The page includes charging documents, along with statements about the crime and why the DOJ is pursuing the death penalty.
In addition to murdering innocent victims, officials wrote, Tsarnaev betrayed the country that offered him and his ethnic Chechen family refuge from feared persecution in Russia.
“Dzhokar Tsarnaev received asylum from the United States; obtained citizenship and enjoyed the freedoms of a United States citizen; and then betrayed his allegiance to the United States by killing and maiming people in the United States,” officials wrote in a document on the updated page.
The updated page offers little that is new against Tsarnaev, one Justice Department official said, but the Jan. 11 renewed timestamp places it more prominently in public view.
“It won’t affect what the Supreme Court does, but it will help to remind curious people how bad it was that day at the marathon,” the official said.
The court is expected to hear the death penalty appeal in the fall.
he was a Patsy and his brother MURDERED (which is why he decided to accept prison over a Clinton-type EXECUTION
The judge that gets this case should look at it, and then throw it out. It’s a waste of time and money! Mental anguish because he lost his cap? What about the real mental anguish the families suffered by his traitorous acts? The hell with him, let him rot!