Associated Press:
Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings went silent: he'd just been read his constitutional rights.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered his hospital room and gave him his Miranda warning, according to four officials of both political parties briefed on the interrogation. They insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.
Before being advised of his rights, the 19-year-old suspect told authorities that his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, only recently had recruited him to be part of the attack that detonated pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line, two U.S. officials said.
This is
consistent with a report on Tuesday from
The Boston Globe:
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev admitted to authorities Sunday that he and his brother were behind the Boston Marathon bombings, according to a senior law enforcement official.
Tsarnaev made his admissions to FBI agents who interviewed him at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he is being treated for multiple gunshot wounds. He had not yet been given a Miranda warning.
What the
AP's report adds to the story is that Tsarnaev apparently went silent after being read his Miranda rights. Surely, this will cause serious heartburn on the part of folks like Sen. Lindsey Graham who believe that the proper response to attacks like the Boston Marathon bombing is to suspend the Constitution, because terror, and We. Must. Be. Afraid. But from everything we know so far, reading Tsarnaev his Miranda rights done nothing to jeopardize the case against him (there was already plenty of evidence against him, so a non-admissible confession is not the big deal it might first appear to be) or put the country at risk. It makes you wonder: why are guys like Graham so eager to suspend the rule of law?