(They Say) He Said

Trey Smith

According to government prosecutors, Ibragim Todashev told investigators that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the alleged mastermind of the Boston Marathon bombings, was involved in a triple homicide in 2011. Of course, no one can question Todashev about his alleged admission because, not long after said bombings, the FBI killed him under murky circumstances. But that's okay, say prosecutors in recent court filings in the case of Tsarnaev's brother. The court will just need to accept that what the government says is true!

If this was any other case, I would think that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's attorneys would have a field day. One of the main premises of our adversarial justice system is the ability to cross-examine witnesses. But this is no ordinary case and, in our post-9/11 America, courts seem to bend over backwards to accept whatever the government says is true.

So, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense team will have the unenviable task of fighting against a ghost. The government says that Todashev said, blah blah blah and who can say that he did or didn't say what they claim he said?