I found
this interesting, from CNN:
"Communicating with investigators by writing and nodding, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has indicated that his older brother masterminded the bombings, the source said.
The younger Tsarnaev has been charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, as well as one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death.
Although Tsarnaev is heavily sedated and on a ventilator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he was "alert, mentally competent and lucid" during a brief initial court appearance at his bedside Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler found."
So umm one minute you go from appearing in court to the next having a tube down your throat and being 'heavily sedated' - meaning under a general anaesthetic. How well could he really have been prior to that?
You're not even allowed to make legal decisions whilst taking Codeine, and by no stretch of the imagination he'd be on stronger opioids than that. I'm not saying that there isn't a way he could be alert enough, but legally shouldn't you be extra careful? How exactly did they determine his alertness or the fact that he wasn't off with the fairies on Morphine?