by Art Lien | May 10, 2015 | Courtroom
Thursday was a short day at the Tsarnaev trial last week as both sides met with the judge in chambers to discuss whether and to what extent Sister Helen Prejean will be allowed to testify. For much of the time nothing happened in the courtroom, though many tweets were read and sent. The previous day’s witness was brought back to the stand to complete his testimony, but that’s all.
I profited of the free time to ride a Hubway bike to the North End where I had an espresso and Italian ice and did the little sketch below.
by Art Lien | May 6, 2015 | Courtroom
There was a short delay this morning as the court set up a video conference call so that a Tsarnaev relative could testify from Kazakhstan. The government wanted the judge to tell the jury that the oath taken by the witness was meaningless since there would be no way to pursue perjury charges in Kazakhstan. Judge O’Toole declined for now.




by Art Lien | May 5, 2015 | Courtroom
Not a lot happening at the Boston Marathon bombing trial today. We heard from the roommate of Tamerlan’s future wife, a couple of friends of Dzhokhar’s, the owner of a Russian bookstore, a Russian psychiatrist who treated Tsarnaev’s father, a wrestling coach and a Princeton professor who is an expert in all things Chechen.







by Art Lien | May 4, 2015 | Courtroom
Tsarnaev’s relatives, who arrived from Russia nine days ago, finally took the witness stand today and the testimony was often tearful. Tsarnaev, who has betrayed not the slightest emotion or hint of remorse during the excruciating testimony of the bombing victims, dabbed his eyes with a tissue when his aged aunt Patimat sobbed so uncontrollably she was unable to testify.



I pity his family, but I’m not sure I have any pity for Dzhokhar.
by Art Lien | Apr 29, 2015 | Courtroom
. . . two days ago, on Monday, but I was in DC for the same sex marriage arguments at the Supreme Court. I returned to the Boston courtroom today.
Until now the focus of the defense had been almost exclusively on Dzhokhar’s older brother Tamerlane.
Today we heard from a paramedic who worked on Tamerlan shortly before he died who testified the the older Tsarnaev was combative, even when mortally wounded. And then from a paramedic who treated Dzhokhar after he climbed out of the boat and surrendered. She said Dzhokhar put up no fight.
After that it was a string of character witnesses – teachers and friends who knew a different Tsarnaev than the one sitting in the courtroom today. All of them were on the stand a very short time.
So it wasn’t an uninteresting day, but nothing unexpected. I’ll just post the rest of today’s drawings and call it a day.







