"Balancing the State and Federal Roles in Boston Bomber Case"

The title of this post is the headline of this new article via Stateline, and here are some excerpts that reinforce my sense that at least some Masschusetts officials are quite pleased the feds have taken over the initial prosecution in this case because of the availability of the death penalty:

It’s not clear that anyone in Massachusetts is objecting to a potential death sentence in the bombings that killed three and injured hundreds, and in fact, a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a bill Tuesday to reinstate the death penalty.  “What if he were not going to be federally charged?” said Republican Rep. Shaunna O’Connell in an interview with the Boston Globe.  “In Massachusetts, there would be no death penalty for him.”

The federal interest in the case against Tsarnaev is national security and the so far, state and federal authorities are cooperating.  There’s no federalism ground for the state of Massachusetts to object to a death sentence, said Robert Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, since the federal charge carries a federal death sentence.  The final decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made by Attorney General Eric Holder.

Currently, the state does not plan to introduce state charges against Tsarnaev, said Jake Wark, press secretary for the Suffolk County district attorney who handles all violent crime in Boston.  Wark said that in the first few hours after the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office was responsible for the case and handled it like any triple murder investigation.  But after the call came from Washington late Monday afternoon, the district attorney’s office deferred to the United States Attorney’s Office to proceed with the terrorism investigation.

Gov. Deval Patrick has been silent on the issue since the bombings, but said in 2005, “The death penalty can never be made foolproof, it is not a deterrent, and the huge costs incurred in capital proceedings divert resources away from actually fighting and prosecuting crime.”

So far in the investigation, federal, state and local authorities have worked together nearly seamlessly.  David Laufman, a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, said that is the result of 10 years of relationship building between the FBI and state and local law enforcement.  In Boston, the joint terrorism task force, headed by the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI but also staffed with state and local officers, is taking the lead in the investigation.

“The FBI took some lumps in the 9/11 era for big-footing state and local law enforcement in national security and in other cases,” said Laufman, “but the FBI’s made a concerted effort to improve state and local relationships and now there are much better working relationships for the FBI to work in cases like this.”

Some related recent posts:

• Horrific crime with uncertain responsibility and uncertain punishment on Patriots' Day in Boston
• Can the new media help identify the two persons the FBI are seeking in the Boston bombings?
• Spotting punishment and victims' rights issues after capture of Boston bombing suspect #2, Dzhokar Tsarnaev
• Does Boston bombing provide still more support for my federal-only death penalty perspective?