Judge Made Miranda-Rights Call in Boston Bombing Case - Patriotic Republicans Wanted Police to Get All Info/Fabrication without worrying about Constitution

WSj

A federal judge decided to advise Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of his Miranda rights, even though investigators apparently still wanted to question him further under a public-safety exception.

The judge’s move, made on Monday in the hospital where Mr. Tsarnaev was recovering, has prompted some Republican lawmakers to press the Justice Department as to why it didn’t make a stronger bid to resist the judge’s plans.

Those lawmakers say Mr. Tsarnaev’s interrogation should have continued without him being advised of his right to remain silent, because they say agents should have had more time to determine if there were other undetected bombs or plotters. After being read his rights, the suspect stopped talking to investigators, officials said.

“There will be more instances like this, and we will need to have a much better understanding about what is appropriate,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R., Mich.) said in an interview Thursday. “We have a long-standing tradition that the judiciary does not interfere with investigations. This sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said Thursday, “The rules of criminal procedure require the court to advise the defendant of his right to silence and his right to counsel during the initial appearance.” Mr. Boyd said Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler made it clear on Sunday, after the first sealed charges were filed in her court against Mr. Tsarnaev, 19 years old, that the hearing would be held the following day.

Federal rules require that defendants appear before a judge without unnecessary delay—usually defined as within one business day.

Judge Bowler convened the brief, makeshift court hearing in the hospital room about 16 hours after the complaint was filed. Her reading of the Miranda warning came as part of the formal presentation of charges to the suspect, an act that would normally take place in court.

Judge Bowler was the first government official to advise Mr. Tsarnaev of his right to remain silent after his capture Friday night, officials briefed on the matter said.

The judge first told the Justice Department on Saturday that she intended to read Mr. Tsarnaev his rights on Monday, according to people briefed on the discussions. One U.S. official said the judge cited the intense television coverage of the capture as one reason for initiating the criminal prosecution.

Through a court clerk, the judge declined to comment.

Under a 1984 Supreme Court ruling, a public-safety exception allows investigators to question suspects for an unspecified period without giving them a Miranda warning. The exception is designed to give law-enforcement officials time to determine if there are other threats to public safety.

It will ultimately be up to a court to decide which, if any, of the statements Mr. Tsarnaev made before he got the warning could be admissible evidence for the prosecution.

Andrew Arena, the former head of the Detroit office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation when it handled the case of the plane “underwear bomber” in 2009, said he thought the Boston case was handled properly.

“When you bring the judge into it, that’s what’s going to happen. They don’t work for the Justice Department, they don’t work for Capitol Hill, they are going to do what they are legally obligated to do,” said Mr. Arena. “I think [investigators] got what they were going to get out of him, anyway.”

The legal treatment of Mr. Tsarnaev will revive a debate over how terrorist suspects should be interrogated and treated, a charged topic.

Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up the plane landing in Detroit, was read his Miranda rights shortly after his arrest, setting off a political furor. He initially stopped cooperating with investigators but later resumed.

Mr. Rogers said Justice officials should have pushed back on the judge’s plans, citing the unique circumstance that additional bombs could still be in play. He wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder late Wednesday to register his concerns.

“What I find shocking is that the judiciary proactively inserted itself into this circumstance and the Justice Department so readily acquiesced to the circumstance,” he said. “The court doing this proactively, they may have jeopardized our ability to get public-safety information.”

Mr. Rogers, a former FBI agent, said because of the severity of the threat and the suspect’s poor health, investigators didn’t have sufficient time to question him. Among the information investigators were still seeking was whether others were involved in the attacks and whether there were additional explosives hidden somewhere, he said.

The FBI was aware Judge Bowler was planning to go to the hospital Monday and was “not happy about it,” he said. “They believed they needed more time. This is not a good way to stop another bomb from going off.”

An FBI spokesman declined to comment.