Someday historians will look back at this country and just shake their heads in bewilderment.

"The family of the convicted marathon bomber is in America, on your tax dollars, and survivors are outraged after learning the news.

As of Thursday, family members of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been staying at the Hampton Inn in Revere under very tight security, just one of the things tax dollars are paying for. FOX25's Sharman Sacchetti investigated how much this trip is costing you.

Sources say these family members are being called as witnesses and not only that, at least three agencies are working around the clock to protect and transport them. This is all part of the defense team's strategy to save Tsarnaev. While it's unclear when their flight started, we know the last part of it came through Amsterdam and landed at Logan Airport and cost nearly $2,500 per person.

The cost to put them up at the Hampton Inn at the government rate: almost $200 per night, per person. And a source says at least three agencies, the FBI, US Marshal's and Revere Police are involved in constant protection.

“I think you're probably talking about $100,000 plus in that neighborhood in terms of security and out of pocket costs associated with travel,” former US attorney Michael Sullivan said.

And that's just for this trip.

Lawyer fees or even what all witnesses during the trial cost is still unclear. One defense witness, Mark Spencer of Arsenal Consulting, charged $375 per hour and billing taxpayers for $150,000."

[more] http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/2889466...ans-tax-dollars

This one's for you, Amerika.

Happens with all indigent defendants. The taxpayers are going to pay the full boat on his appeal too. that means the cost of his attorney or attorneys, the cost of printing the transcripts, the costs of appellate court personnel [judges, clerks, law pool], the costs of the prosecution appeals lawyer answering the brief [plus the costs of printing whatever the number of briefs the rules require]. And then there's the inevitable Federal Writ of Habeas Corpus review and a possible Cert. petition to the USSC. It's a wonderful country...

What? No trip to Disney World after they testify as recompense for having caused them any discomfort?

"Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's five relatives are being guarded by 16 FBI staffers -- and the feds want them to testify this week so they can be sent back to Russia on Friday, according to court transcripts.

“It’s an enormous expense and distraction for the agency, and that’s just part of the expense that the government has endured,” federal prosecutor William Weinreb said during a closed-door meeting Monday with the defense and Judge George O’Toole, according to transcripts shown on the court's public terminal.

“The FBI is devoting 16 personnel full time to taking care of them, both guarding them as well as protecting them from the press and others,” Weinreb said, according to the transcript. “It’s currently the intention of the FBI to return the foreign witnesses to Russia on Friday, meaning that they need to testify this week. At that point they will have been in the country for a week.”

Tsarnaev's defense in the death penalty phase of his trial began this week. His relatives are expected to paint a portrait of a troubled family that included two mentally ill parents who left Dzhokhar under the sway of his jihadist older brother and co-conspirator Tamerlan.

The relatives were moved by the feds to an undisclosed location after their arrival in Boston sparked a media furor."

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion...rnaev_relatives