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Boston Marathon bomber sues over ballcap, showers in Colorado prison

Posted at 3:10 PM, Jan 08, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-08 17:10:56-05

BOSTON (AP) — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has sued the federal government for $250,000 over what he calls his unlawful, unreasonable and discriminatory treatment at the Colorado prison where he is serving a life sentence.

The Boston Herald reports that the now 26-year-old Tsarnaev, who is at Colorado's Supermax in Fremont County, specifically cites in the lawsuit filed Monday the confiscation of a white baseball cap and bandana that he bought at the prison commissary and a limit of three showers per week.

He says in the handwritten suit that his treatment is contributing to his “mental and physical decline.”

An email seeking comment was left Thursday with the federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Supermax is a maximum-security facility, known officially as the USP Florence ADMAX. It is widely regarded as the toughest federal prison in the country. The Supermax holds 376 male inmates — a collection of some of the most notorious criminals in the world, including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of the two Oklahoma City bombers, the "shoe bomber," a man convicted for his role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the "Unabomber," and more.

Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction, related to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The April 15, 2013 attack killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

In July, a federal appeals court overturned Tsarnaev's death sentence.