Judge urged to keep Tsarnaev juror forms sealed
The federal judge who sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death in 2015 is being urged by prosecutors not to unseal 1,355 sealed questionnaires completed by prospective jurors not chosen to hear the case, arguing the release could lead to “embarrassment or harassment.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadine Pellegrini told U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. in a filing last week that among the 100 questions put to jurors were whether the federal government “allows too many Muslims, or too many people from Muslim countries, to immigrate legally to the United States,” and whether the war on terror “is overblown or exaggerated.”
Attorney David Patton, in preparing the appeal to overturn Tsarnaev’s death sentence, is agreeable to redacting jurors’ personal identifiers, but told O’Toole in his motion to obtain the voluminous documents that he needs to know “the percentage of all venirepersons (potential jurors appearing for jury selection) who knew about the case, and the percentage who believed, based on pretrial publicity, that Mr. Tsarnaev was guilty or should receive the death penalty.”
Patton plans to take the position that the trial never should have been held in Boston, much less 2 miles from Copley Square, where three race spectators were killed and nearly 300 others injured by two pressurecooker bombs on April 15, 2013.
“The questionnaire contained 100 questions, many of which revealed information that could lead to the jurors’ identification, could be considered private, or touched on divisive issues that could subject the jurors to embarrassment or harassment,” Pellegrini said. “Even with full anonymity, many potential jurors would likely be surprised to find that their highly personal political and religious views — explained in their own handwriting — will be forever in the public record.”
Tsarnaev turned 25 last month at the Supermax prison in Colorado. His opening brief is due no later than Nov. 19 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in South Boston.