Of course, I'm sure his team of lawyers will present an outraged case explaining why they can't really "defend" him.  While this maneuver is, in that sense, legitimate, that's not what it's really about.  It's about the usual:  Manufactured procedural delay, to order to drive up costs and overall delay.  The latter two, once stoked as much as possible, will then be used as the ammunition to try to extort a plea deal with a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

It reminds me of the endless litigation about Nidal Hasan's beard, litigation undertaken for the same general reason.  The ostensible purpose was to safeguard Hasan's supposed religious practices.  The actual reason was to soak up time and money by talking about something  --  anything  --  but what the defendant did.

So we can expect more of this, plus endless appeals.  Anything but a trial about the facts of what Tsarnaev was up to that dreadful day.

That's the way it goes for now, and that's the way it will continue to go until we recover our senses and demand that cases focus on what the defendant did instead of about what the lawyers and their hired shrinks (which is next) can do.

Just so we'll remember, however, I have put below what this case should actually be about.

                    Martin  Richard

                      2005 - 2013