File shows protocol for guarding Tsarnaev jurors
A newly released federal court document sheds fresh light on just how intensely guarded jurors were in the 2015 death-penalty trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — including being kept in a room with the shades drawn when they weren’t hearing testimony.
U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., who filed his Jury Management and Transportation Order under seal on March 3, 2015, has now released it as a new legal team for the 23-yearold Kyrgyzstan native seeks undisclosed filings and other information on his three-month trial to formulate an appeal.
An appellate filing deadline has still not been set.
Tsarnaev was found guilty and sentenced to death for the April 15, 2013, terrorist bombings in Copley Square that killed three race spectators, injured hundreds more and led to the murder of MIT Police officer Sean Collier.
Tsarnaev’s older brother and co-conspirator, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died following an epic shootout with Watertown police as the brothers tried to flee.
A jury of 10 women and eight men were culled from a pool of 1,373 possible panelists over 24 days. They were not sequestered.
However, O’Toole’s original order states he was insisting upon jury controls to help ensure Tsarnaev’s right to a fair trial and to protect their privacy “to the extent possible during the course of the proceeding.”
O’Toole instructed the U.S. Marshal Service to collect jurors daily “at designated locations,” and to be responsible for them while they were at the South Boston courthouse, including making sure “no juror has any unauthorized contact with any person in the courthouse.”
Jurors were moved about via a nonpublic elevator to avoid encounters with the media and what O’Toole called “the curious.”
Marshals were forbidden to mention Tsarnaev or comment on any aspects of the trial in their presence.
The jurors’ cellphones and electronic devices were confiscated while they were on duty.
In addition, O’Toole noted, “When the jurors are not in the courtroom, which of course has no windows, they will be in the designated jury room. Consistent with the Court’s typical practice, the shades in the jury room will be shut.”
O’Toole told the trial teams at the time he would instruct jurors on their arrangements “in a neutral way to prevent the jury from drawing any negative inference against the defendant.”