The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has been charged in his hospital bed with using a weapon of mass destruction after reportedly admitting to a role in the bombings Sunday before he was informed of his rights to remain silent and have an attorney present. Authorities had delayed reading Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his rights under a controversial Justice Department public safety exception, but they were finally read to him Monday, along with the charges against him, as he lay recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat in Watertown in a residential backyard late Friday after a bloody standoff that killed his brother, Tamerlan. The pair are accused of carrying out last Monday’s bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170. Republican lawmakers had said Tsarnaev should be held as an enemy combatant, a call White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dismissed Monday.

Jay Carney: “He will not be treated as an enemy combatant. We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice. Under U.S. law, United States citizens cannot be trialed — tried, rather, in military commissions. And it is important to remember that since 9/11 we have used the federal court system to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists. The effective use of the criminal justice system has resulted in the interrogation, conviction and detention of both U.S. citizens and non-citizens for acts of terrorism committed inside the United States and around the world.”