Retired Warden: Tsarnaev Could Write Book, Have Visitors In Supermax
BOSTON (CBS) - The man who once ran the federal death row finished his second day on the stand in the Boston Marathon bombing trial on Thursday.
Retired warden Mark Bezy told the jury how isolated Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would be at the ADX supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, where the convicted terrorist is likely to go if the jury sentences him to life.
I-Team: Former Warden On Life In Supermax
Bezy explained that Tsarnaev would have a limited number of personal visits and phone calls, and be kept in near solitary confinement.
He testified that the 21-year-old probably wouldn't be moved elsewhere in the federal prison system because "in my opinion there would be inmates in other institutions who would want to do great bodily harm to him" and ADX provides relative safety.
But under a sometimes blistering cross-examination by prosecutor Steve Mellin, Bezy admitted that Tsarnaev could be able to get his restrictions (also known as SAMs, or Special Administrative Measures) loosened. Bezy explained that might mean Tsarnaev could be allowed to receive more visitors and to have more frequent communication with the outside world.
Bezy admitted Tsarnaev might even be able to add a new person, like a girlfriend, to his visitors' list; he can write a book from prison, and his private letters could also end up published on the Internet by their recipients, Bezy told jurors.
Bezy was the only person to testify Thursday, as Judge George O'Toole wrestled with whether or not to allow the woman who would become the defense's final witness to take the stand.
Sister Helen Prejean is the nun and anti-death penalty advocate who was famously played by Susan Sarandon in the movie "Dead Man Walking". Government lawyers are trying to block her from testifying on the defense's behalf on Monday.
This case could be back in the jury's hands by next week, when jurors would decide whether or not Tsarnaev will be sentenced to death.