A federal magistrate on Monday appointed attorney Judy Clarke to the defense team of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. Clarke was previously a member of the defense team of Jared Loughner, the man convicted of killing six people and wounding 12 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011.
As reported by Politico on Monday, federal magistrate Marianne Bowler noted Clarke’s experience in death penalty cases in an order appointing Clarke to join three federal public defenders assigned to Tsarnaev’s case.
“In light of the circumstances in this case, the defendant requires an attorney with more background, knowledge and experience in federal death penalty cases than that possessed by current counsel,” Bowler wrote in the order.
