Tsarnaev’s lawyer has saved clients
BOSTON – Judy Clarke has defended those accused of horrific and infamous crimes, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner, who killed six people and injured 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in 2011.
She saved all of them from the death penalty and hopes to do the same for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused in the 2013 marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.
Lawyers who have worked with her say the same gentle quality she has shown with Tsarnaev has helped her connect with her other clients and, in turn, helped save their lives.
“During a time when the world was focused on my brother as a monster, she was able to see him as a human being and provide him with that kind of human contact and emotional support at a time when he had very little sympathy from anyone,” said David Kaczynski, who made the difficult decision to turn in his brother after he suspected him in a series of bombings that killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995.
“She really sees each human being as a human being and defines them not in terms of what they may have done or how sick they may be or how fanatical they may be, but through a kind of human core,” Kaczynski said.
Clarke said she found it natural to devote her career to defending the accused.
“You’re dealing with liberty,” she told a newspaper. “It’s the ultimate in legal issues to me, whether or not someone is free.”
In the Tsarnaev case, the U.S. Department of Justice has given no indication that it will entertain a plea agreement that would spare Tsarnaev’s life. Prosecutors are going forward with a federal death penalty trial. Jury selection began Jan. 5.
In a rare public speech about her work, Clarke told an audience at Loyola Law School in 2013 that many people charged with capital crimes have suffered severe trauma and cognitive development issues. She said many of her clients have been reluctant to plead guilty when she first meets them.
“They’re looking into the lens of life in prison in a box,” she said. “Our job is to provide them with a reason to live.”
After 80 years, flower has month to live
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A towering American agave plant that waited 80 years to flower and produce seeds is dying after fulfilling its purpose and will be taken down next month, said its caretaker at the University of Michigan’s botanical gardens.
The unusually old specimen has called Ann Arbor home since 1934. It grew to 28 feet tall after a rapid growth spurt last spring that preceded its flowering, which ended last year. Once it stopped flowering, the agave went into rapid decline, which is normal for the species, said Mike Palmer, horticulture manager at the school’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
“There’s really no value to leaving it up anymore because it’s going downhill so quickly,” he said.
The agave produced “tons” of seeds, including one pod that contained 86 of them, Palmer said. Students have been picking viable seeds that will be distributed to botanical gardens throughout the U.S. Some seedlings will be sold in the university’s garden store.
The agave most likely flowers once and dies because it uses so many resources to bloom in a harsh and extreme environment.
Although it is known as the century plant, the American agave typically lives 10 to 30 years.
Train strikes man posing for photograph
KALAMA, Wash. – The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office says a man struck and killed by a train south of Kalama was posing for a photograph at the time.
The man had been driving from Tacoma to Portland, Oregon, on Saturday morning when he and his female traveling companion stopped to smoke a cigarette and take pictures along the Columbia River.
The man was posing between two railroad tracks while a northbound BNSF freight train was approaching. Investigators say he apparently did not see an approaching Amtrak passenger train coming from the other direction.
The victim’s identity has not been released. His companion was not injured.
Associated Press
