New court documents filed this week by lawyers of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev show how the defense plans to place the blame on older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
"His defense team has documents that show [Dzhokhar] Tsarnaev as a submissive 19-year-old who was coerced by his older brother Tamerlan." (Via WHDH)
"They say that the suspect's brother, Tamerlan, may have been quote, 'An all-powerful force who could not be ignored or disobeyed.'" (Via HLN)
According to ABC, Tsarnaev's lawyers are also looking to get an unredacted version of a U.S. government report that details the shooting death of Ibrahim Todashev, an associate of Tamerlan's.
Before Todashev was killed by law enforcement last year, the FBI says he confessed to being involved in a 2011 triple-murder in Massachusetts and added Tamerlan also had something to do with it. (Via Orange County Corrections Department)
ABC also said Tsarnaev's defense plans to show that the accused Boston bomber saw Tamerlan — who was killed in a shootout with police — as "all-powerful" partly because of his involvement in that unsolved triple-murder. Tsarnaev's lawyers also claim the FBI, at one point, tried to recruit Tamerlan as an informant.
"The defense says agents approached the accused older brother and asked him to give information about Boston's Muslim and Chechen communities. The government denies that." (Via CNN)
Lawyers suggest Tamerlan might've become paranoid and stressed out before the Boston Marathon attack because of the FBI's alleged request. (Via WBZ-TV)
Tsarnaev, now 20 years old, faces the death penalty for his alleged role in the Boston Marathon bombing that took place almost a year ago. Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to a slew of terror-related charges. The trial is expected to begin in November.
