Boston bomb suspect could face death sentence

       
The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was charged Monday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and could face a death sentence, the U.S. Attorney General said.               

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement detailed the charge against 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
               
Tsarnaev made his first appearance before a magistrate judge in Beth Israel hospital, according to Gary Wente, circuit executive of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.                  

Officials say Tsarnaev and his older brother and suspected co-conspirator, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the twin explosions at Monday's marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 180 others.                 

The White House, meanwhile, said Tsarnaev will not be tried as an enemy combatant in a military tribunal because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen. The Tsarnaev brothers were born in southern Russia.                  

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be prosecuted in the federal court system.                 

Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen and under U.S. law, citizens cannot be tried in military commissions, Carney said. Carney said that since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal court system has been used to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists.                 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remained unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat, and he was expected to face separate state charges in the fatal shooting of a university police officer.          


AP