Legal questions surround the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing who was captured on Friday.
What is the role of the public safety exception as it relates to Miranda rights? Were civil rights violated as a result of the lockdown? Should Tsarnaev be tried as an enemy combatant as some Republican legislators have suggested?
The questions surrounding the surviving suspect of the Boston Marathon bombing were discussed by a panel of legal experts, as part of our monthly legal roundtable discussion.
The panelists included:
- William Freivogel, J.D., Director, School of Journalism; Associate Professor, Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, Southern Illinois University – Carbondale
- Mark Smith, J.D., Associate Vice Chancellor and Director, The Career Center, Washington University in St. Louis
- Representative Rory Ellinger (D – University City), J.D., Founding Member, Ellinger & Associates, P.C.
Other topics included:
- The U.S. Supreme Court recently sided with Tyler McNeely, a man from Cape Girardeau who was suspected of drunken driving but would not submit to a breath test. McNeely was forced to submit to a blood test at a hospital. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement must obtain a search warrant in such instances.
- The potential revision of the Missouri criminal code.
- The Missouri Supreme Court recently cleared the way for St. Louis developer Paul McKee to use millions of dollars of tax increment financing to redevelop two square miles of North St. Louis.
- The St. Louis City Board of Aldermen has passed a marijuana law that will go into effect June 1st, making the penalty for marijuana possession a lesser offense.
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