Supreme Court to hear Boston marathon bomber argument
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a government appeal to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, granting review of a lower court’s decision that errors during the trial tainted his sentencing.
If the justices overturn the appeals court decision, Tsarnaev’s death sentence could be reinstated. If they do not, he would nevertheless serve multiple life sentences in prison.
Tsarnaev, 27, was convicted of dozens of crimes in the 2013 terror attack that killed three people and received a death sentence in 2015.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit threw out the death sentence last year, finding that the judge in the trial failed to ensure a fair jury after wall-to-wall media coverage of the attack.
Then-Attorney General William Barr promised to appeal, and the Justice Department followed through in October. Government lawyers told the court that unless the justices took action in the case, prosecutors would have to retry the penalty phase of the trial, forcing victims of the attack to take the stand again.
As is its practice, the Supreme Court court took the case Monday without comment. The justices will likely hear arguments in the fall.
A reversal could put President Joe Biden in a difficult position because during his campaign he promised to push for the approval of legislation to eliminate the death penalty. Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing in February that he had “great” concern about the application of the death penalty by the federal government, which resumed executions under Trump.
Garland told lawmakers he expected Biden would reinstate a moratorium on the death penalty after 13 federal inmates were executed during the final months of Trump’s administration. The Justice Department declined to comment Monday.
“President Biden has made clear, as he did on the campaign trail, that he has grave concerns about whether capital punishment as currently implemented is consistent with the values that are fundamental to our sense of justice and fairness,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response the court’s decision to hear the appeal.
Psaki also noted that Biden has expressed “horror” at the 2013 bombing, but she offered no opinion on the specific case and did not detail the president’s plans for the death penalty more broadly.
Some conservatives were quick to call attention to the notion that Tsarnaev raises an important test of Biden’s resolve on the issue.
“The Biden administration should stand strong in favor of capital punishment for this terrorist, and justice should be done,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
The Biden administration has repeatedly sought to disentangle itself from positions taken at the court by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
Officials recently asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a series of cases involving Trump’s effort to cut federal funding for medical centers that refer patients for abortions, for instance.
The new administration and other parties have already secured dismissals in cases involving several Trumpera immigration policies as well as questions raised about the 2020 election.
Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted a pair of bombs near the finish line of the marathon and killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer during a citywide manhunt. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout.
Defense attorneys said Tsarnaev failed to receive a fair trial because the court did not allow them to probe potential jurors more aggressively about the influence media coverage of the bombing may have had on their impartiality. The court had declined their request to ask potential jurors contentspecific questions, such as “What stands out in your mind” from the news they had consumed about the marathon bombing.
The appeals court also ruled the judge erred by excluding evidence authorities said implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in other murders.