Death penalty for 1:11 Boston Marathon attacker lifted
(CNN) -
Eight years after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three spectators and a police officer, the Supreme Court will review a lower court ruling on Wednesday that overturned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence, one of the two brothers involved in the massacre.
Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015 for the deaths of Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard and Lingzi Lu, in the marathon, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier several days later, among other charges.
Hundreds of people were injured after Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan detonated two shrapnel bombs near the finish line, leaving the sidewalks strewn with pellets, nails, metal debris and glass shards.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev would later die in a shootout with the police.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held in the federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
In July 2020, a federal appeals court declared that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will remain in prison for the rest of his life for "unspeakably brutal acts", but that a new criminal trial should be held, citing questions regarding jury selection and pre-trial publicity, as well as the exclusion of evidence that could have helped your case.
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Boston Marathon attacker's notes revealed 0:40
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit annulled the death penalty and ordered a new trial in the criminal phase, but warned: "Make no mistake": Tsarnaev "will spend his remaining days locked up in prison."
"One of the main promises of our criminal justice system is that even the worst of the accused deserves to be tried fairly and legally punished," the court stated.
Trump and Biden's request and the arguments of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyer
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene and reinstate the original sentence, a request that the Biden administration renewed, calling Tsarnaev a "radical jihadist hell-bent on killing Americans" who had been convicted of "one of the" worst acts. terrorism on US soil since September 11, 2001. "
Ginger Anders, a lawyer for Tsarnaev, told the judges that there is no doubt that the attacks were a "grave and appalling act of terrorism", but that the lower court had made two "serious errors" that compromised the necessary safeguards to ensure that your client received an adequate penalty.
Boston: The Testimony of Victims
During the guilty phase of the trial, lawyers stressed that Tsarnaev had only participated under the influence of his brother. Anders also said the district court had violated the Eighth Amendment and federal law by excluding evidence that she claimed would show that Tamerlan Tsarnaev could have been linked to three murders as an act of jihad, in 2011. She said the evidence could have been used to further make the case that it was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, not his brother, who had taken the lead in the bombing and had unusual influence over his client.
"That is precisely the type of evidence that a capital jury must consider if it is to fulfill its constitutional responsibility to give a reasoned moral response to the defendant and his crime," Anders wrote.
He also disagreed with the fact that the district court had refused to ask prospective jurors a question that is normally asked in high-profile cases: "What did you remember hearing about the case?"
"The court's refusal to obtain basic information essential to evaluating the impartiality claims of the jurors improperly left the jurors the judges of their own fitness to serve," argued Anders.
What can happen to Tsarnaev, regardless of what the Court decides
It is unclear whether, even if Tsarnaev's original sentence is reinstated, it would actually apply to him, given the opposition of the Biden government to the federal death penalty.
The Biden administration's Justice Department said that although Tsarnaev's lawyers had tried to force the 2011 killings to be discovered, they remain "unsolved" and the lower court judge had said there was insufficient evidence to describe to the jury the true role of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the crime.
As for the jury pool, the Justice Department told justices that the court had convened an expanded group, which it selected with a lengthy questionnaire that included multiple questions about pretrial publicity. "
"This court should overturn the judges' decision and get this case back on track to a fair conclusion," Acting Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court.
He said that "pre-trial publicity - even widespread and adverse publicity - does not inevitably lead to an unfair trial."
Five years have passed since the Boston bombing 2:39
Prelogar said the district court had conducted a thorough process to select potential jurors that spanned "21 days of trial and nearly 4,000 pages of transcripts."
What the victims say
Over the years, survivors and family members have divided over whether Tsarnaev should receive the death penalty.
In 2015, Bill and Denise Richard wrote an op-ed for The Boston Globe after losing their 8-year-old son, Martin.
"We know that the Government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong the reliving of the most painful day of our lives," the Richards wrote.
Jennifer Kauffman said she was watching the race when the first bomb went off and that she suffered hearing loss, heart arrhythmia, internal bruising and swelling.
He said he is against allowing another penalty phase to take place.
"I know there are some people who disagree with me and that's okay," he told The Boston Globe.
"I believe that we all have the right to speak, to share our voices. We each have the freedom to speak their truths even if we disagree. I just hope that we can do so from a place of compassion, kindness and respect for others."
In a statement to CNN, Mikey Borgard, another survivor, said he thought the lower court was right to overturn the death penalty.
"He identified serious problems in relation to jury selection and exclusion of critical mitigation evidence," he said.
He also called the death penalty "barbarism."
"I cannot bear the thought of a human life being extinguished in my name," he said.
But Helen Zhao, aunt of the victim Lingzi Lu, said the court "should not have overturned the verdict."
He said he hopes "the next one will reach the same verdict" because "if we give up, we have basically lost to him."
Terrorist attack Boston Marathon