A judge unencumbered by political correctness has barred the American Civil Liberties Union from participating in the trial of accused Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The ACLU released a document last week stating it was planning to join Tsarnaev’s attorneys tomorrow to plead before U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole, Jr. that Tsarnaev’s Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial is being infringed upon by the conditions of his imprisonment.
They asserted that Tsarnaev was suffering “extraordinary and severe” restrictions that the ACLU regards as “torture,” including his lack of access to TV and radio, family photos, joining in prayer with his fellow prisoners, and the refusal of the prison to let anyone see Tsarnaev except his immediate family and his attorneys.
Despite the claims of the ACLU, Judge O’Toole, Jr. cut them off from the trial and also expunged from the record a memo the ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts submitted to support its position. O’Toole stated, “While there may be no positive rule forbidding it, in my judgment a trial court presiding over a criminal prosecution should not receive or consider volunteered submissions by non-parties except as may be specifically authorized by statute… or other authority.”
The ACLU had no comment.
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