It has become increasingly evident that the Justice Department violated the constitutional rights of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He apparently was questioned for hours without being given his Miranda warnings, and the interrogation continued even after he explicitly requested an attorney. It is disturbing that the Justice Department would risk its criminal prosecution by ignoring such basic rules and even more disturbing for what this says as to its view of the Constitution.
There is much that we still do not know about how Tsarnaev was treated by federal law enforcement after his arrest. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis described extensive questioning of Tsarnaev in the hospital, the first time on "Saturday evening into Sunday morning" and the second on "Sunday evening into Monday morning." All of this was before Tsarnaev was arraigned by a federal magistrate judge on Monday morning, April 22. According to an Associated Press report, the questioning lasted a total of 16 hours before Tsarnaev stopped cooperating upon being informed of his right to remain silent. A senior congressional aide said Tsarnaev had asked several times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored.
