Federal prosecutors say they won't try to prove Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev shot Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Officer Richard Donohue, but say he's still responsible for the officer's injuries, according to Reuters.
In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said the government doesn't intend to offer evidence that Tsarnaev shot Donohue, Reuters reported. Investigators have never said who shot Donohue.
Instead the government alleges Tsarnaev is responsible for Donohue's injuries because Donohue was shot while he and other officers were attempting to prevent Tsarnaev's escape, according to Reuters.
Donohue has said he has no memory of the encounter on the streets of Watertown between police and bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Reuters reported.
Federal prosecutors are also requesting attorneys for Tsarnaev notify them if they plan to introduce any evidence that Tsarnaev had a mental illness, according to Reuters.
In a filing in U.S. District Court in Boston, prosecutors asked a judge to require the defense to notify them by May 7 if they plan "to introduce expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect or any other mental condition of the defendant which bears on either the issue of guilt or the issue of punishment," Reuters reported.
Attorneys for Tsarnaev, who could face the death penalty if convicted of the April 2013 attack that killed three people and injured 264, could argue that the defendant is not wholly responsible for his actions or not deserving of execution, legal experts said, according to Reuters.
"There aren't a lot of directions you can go as a defense attorney," said Walter Price, a former federal prosecutor, Reuters reported. "One of them is always mental and if you think you have the potential to argue that the defendant had diminished mental capacity or insanity, you have to prove it."
Federal court rules require defense attorneys to notify prosecutors of their plans to mount such a defense to give the prosecution time to conduct its own expert review, according to Reuters.
