One of the typical moves for a defense attorney in the sentencing phase of a capital case is to call some of the defendant's family. This has the effect both of "humanizing" the defendant, and showing the jury the suffering it will cause if it orders his execution.
Some have wondered why Judy Clarke did not call any of her client's family. The reason is provided in spades by this Time article. You don't have to read far to see that, as ever, Ms. Clarke knew what she was doing:
Like many observers of the case in Russia, the Tsarnaev family has claimed -- without providing any meaningful evidence -- that the bombing was part of a U.S. government conspiracy intended to test the American public's reaction to a terrorist threat and the imposition of martial law in a U.S. city. "This was all fabricated by the American special services," Said-Hussein Tsarnaev, the convicted bomber's uncle, tells TIME.
No wonder little Dzhokhar is such a piece of work.
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