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Boston bomber sues Colorado prison for “discriminatory treatment”

The Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is suing the prison for lack of showers and taking his hat and bandana

The  world was left in shock on April 15, 2013, when two pressure-cooker bombs were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. We then waited nearly a week before one of the perpetrators, then 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was finally taken into custody. Today, the now 26-year-old is reportedly suing the federal government for $250,000 for “unlawful, unreasonable, and discriminatory treatment” at the supermax prison in Colorado where he is being held.

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Tsarnaev is currently serving a life sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex Florence, which is often referred to as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” In a hand-written lawsuit filed on Monday, he described his treatment at the facility as “disturbing” and “unprofessional.” He specifically refers to his limited allowance of only three showers per week, and the confiscation of a white baseball cap and bandana that he purchased at the prison commissary.

According to the Boston Herald, Tsarnaev claimed in his eight-page lawsuit that prison guards confiscated his cap and bandana “because, by wearing it, I was ‘disrespecting’ the FBI and the victims” of the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing.” The reason the white hat was offensive is not explained, but during the investigation into the bombing, law enforcement referred to Tsarnaev as “White Hat” because that’s what he was wearing in surveillance footage taken from the day of the incident. The same hat was then used as evidence in his death penalty sentence.

A post at the finish where a bomb was detonated in 2013 in wrapped is flowers.
A post at the finish where a bomb was detonated in 2013 is wrapped in flowers.

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Tsarnaev’s original death sentence was overturned due to concerns with the jury selection process. That decision has now been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but if the decision is not reversed it will mean that Tsarnaev will remain locked up for the remainder of his life without parole.

Tsarnaev insists that there is no evidence to support the accusation that his white hat was offensive or disrespectful, and that the treatment he is receiving at the prison is making him anxious and contributing to his “mental and physical decline.”

 According to Bob Hood, former Florence prison warden, lawsuits like these are common among inmates. Tsarnaev’s suit was assigned to a federal judge on Monday, but on Tuesday the judge stated that it was deficient because it did not include a $402 filing fee and a “certified copy of prisoner’s trust fund statement.”

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