Boston Marathon bomber appeals conviction, death sentence

By Nate Raymond

 

FILE PHOTO: A photograph of Djohar Tsarnaev, who is believed to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, is seen on his page of Russian social networking site Vkontakte (VK), as pictured on a monitor in St. Petersburg April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk

 

BOSTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Thursday asked an appellate court to overturn his conviction and death penalty sentence for helping carry out the 2013 attack, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

 

Lawyers for Tsarnaev, 25, argued in a brief filed with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that a lower-court judge's refusal to move the case to another city not traumatized by the bombings deprived him of a fair trial.

 

The attorneys acknowledged that their client, then 19, carried out the attack along with his now-deceased 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

 

But they argued that wall-to-wall media coverage of the bombings meant that nearly the entire jury pool was exposed to news about the attacks, which included "heart-wrenching stories about the homicide victims, the wounded and their families."

 

"The pre-trial publicity was damning: the more a prospective juror had seen, the more likely she was to believe that Tsarnaev was guilty and deserved the death penalty," Tsarnaev's lawyers wrote in a 500-page brief.

 

They said U.S. District Judge George O'Toole also ignored evidence that two jurors had commented on the case on social media before being picked and prevented the defence from telling jurors about Tsarnaev's brother's ties to a 2011 triple murder.

 

That evidence, they said, would have supported their sentencing-related argument that Tsarnaev was a junior partner in a scheme run by his older brother, "an angry and violent man" who had embraced radical Islam.

 

The appeal came after a federal jury in 2015 found Tsarnaev guilty of placing a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the world-renowned race on April 15, 2013, as well as fatally shooting a policeman three days later.

 

The same jury later found that Tsarnaev deserved execution for six of the 17 capital charges of which he was found guilty, which were related to the bomb he personally placed at the marathon's finish line.

 

That bomb killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest fatality, and 23-year-old Chinese exchange student Lingzi Lu. The bombing was one of the highest-profile attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

 

Tsarnaev's brother died after a gunfight with police four days after the bombing, which ended when Tsarnaev ran him over with a stolen car.

 

The manhunt for Tsarnaev ended when he was found hiding in a boat dry-docked in Watertown, Massachusetts.

 

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Leslie Adler and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-28

What a travesty! I can't believe they are still feeding this oxygen thief!

Pathetic how now, in order to save his skin, they argue,

cites and invoke the laws of the very same land they have set out to destroy by killing and maiming it's innocent people...

Edited December 27, 20187 yr by ezzra

Off with his head!!feed the carcass to the swine!

The ultimate service to the community would be for this oik and his like to be executed by police or snipers under training/in a controlled area (ie range!) before the latter are deemed fully operational & able to be deployed.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The attorneys acknowledged that their client, then 19, carried out the attack along with his now-deceased 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

 

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The pre-trial publicity was damning: the more a prospective juror had seen, the more likely she was to believe that Tsarnaev was guilty and deserved the death penalty," Tsarnaev's lawyers wrote in a 500-page brief.

 

I find it utterly ludicrous that a Lawyer can state in one sentence that the accused is indeed guilty, yet in the next breath say a Juror may find him guilty because of adverse publicity. 

A young boy died, and hundreds more injured, the pain of which will probably never leave the families involved, yet this scumbag ( I want to use stronger words but would be banned ), is probably on legal aid, and under protection, "In case his Human rights are violated". As another poster has said, he is now using the democratic legal system that he once attacked to further his own aims.........Totally sickening. How much are the blood sucking lawyers making from this too.

Sorry, rant over, but I do despair when society bends over for all these terrorists...Guilty - In a cell until you rot away....

9 hours ago, Tug said:

Off with his head!!feed the carcass to the swine!

Cruel and unusual punishment to the innocent swine! 

A conspiracy troll post was removed yesterday as well as the replies, unfortunately a public notice was not posted at that time. 

It seems that some members believe that Truth, Justice and the American way doesn't apply to all!

 

By resorting to the barbarism displayed by terrorists, whatever their 'cause', we only sink to their level and so become no better than them.

Apparently, they are not contesting his role in the act, just his level of culpablity as it relates to the allegation of unfairness at sentencing.

37 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

It seems that some members believe that Truth, Justice and the American way doesn't apply to all!

 

By resorting to the barbarism displayed by terrorists, whatever their 'cause', we only sink to their level and so become no better than them.

Thank you. No matter how awful the crime, there must be due legal process. 

11 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

Thank you. No matter how awful the crime, there must be due legal process. 

And this has taken more than 5 years?? "due legal process" certainly is a slow turning wheel! I'll bet the grieving families and injured victims really appreciate this wonderful legal process.