Before Rudy Giuliani became “America’s Mayor” in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he spent years as a federal prosecutor. Today on CNN, Giuliani brought that perspective to bear on the case of the three after-the-fact accomplices of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, expressing considerable skepticism about their motives in this case. Whatever the motives, Giuliani argues, the fact that they hid evidence rather than reported it cost one police officer his life — and they should be charged as conspirators in that crime:

“These three young men could have prevented the death of Officer Collier, probably,” said Giuliani on CNN’s “Starting Point.”

“They were aware by 6, 7 o’clock that night that these two guys were the bombers. If they had done what decent young men should do, which is call the police, given the focus of that investigation, given the number of resources the FBI had brought, the Boston police, given how effective they were investigating, they would have gotten these guys in an hour or two,” he continued. …

“I would charge as predicate acts of conspiracy the murder of officer Collier, the shooting of the other officer and the kidnapping all of which were foreseeable consequences of them joining a conspiracy to help those guys flee,” he continued. “That’s what they are joining right?”

“I’d be seeking 20, 30 years in jail,” Giuliani added.

Giuliani also expresses considerable skepticism, as I have felt since the arrest, that these three just pitched in to help a buddy in trouble.  Their buddy had just killed an eight-year-old boy along with two others, wounded more than 250 others, and was LOLing them back when asked about it.  They could have at that point cut ties and called the FBI; when asked about it later, they could have told the truth about what they had done.  At least the former and perhaps the latter might have led them to capture the Tsarnaevs alive before they had an opportunity to kill and wound anyone else, and if they had, Sean Collier would be alive now.

The “after the fact” presumes that the bombing was the only crime committed.  It wasn’t, and Giuliani has a very good point here. Allow me to make an argument for deterrence that builds on his.  In the future, anyone tempted to help out a suspect in a case like this would understand that they wouldn’t only risk being charged with obstruction of justice, but also of complicity in any further crimes allowed by their interference. Hopefully, the Department of Justice takes this advice from the prosecutor who helped break the Mob.