Politics poisons Tsarnaev appeal

The lead attorney in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s latest federal appeal hung up on Boston.

He hung up the phone Monday on the Herald rather than face questions about why Tsarnaev deserves to be spared the death penalty after murdering and maiming innocent marathon spectators on Boylston Street in 2013.

He hung up on the community that tried to help the Tsarnaev family make a new start in Massachusetts.

He hung up on decency! Attorney Daniel Habib, a Harvard grad from the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., would not say if this appeal is more about the death penalty than Tsarnaev’s terrorism. It’s clear he could care less about needing to explain his motivations.

The federal appeals court based in Boston ruled late last week the district court was “obliged” to probe “plausible claims of juror bias” in Tsarnaev’s “penalty-phase hearing.”

This latest appeal, the court document reveals, is all about the death penalty. The campaign to forever stop executions has now set up shop in Boston.

The federal judges state that “if and only if the district court’s investigation reveals that (jurors 138 or 286) should have been stricken for cause on account of bias, Tsarnaev will be entitled to a new penaltyphase proceeding.”

Tsarnaev will never get out of jail but could escape death once again.

This is a terrorist who ran over his own brother while racing away from a gunfight with police in Watertown after executing MIT campus police officer Sean Collier just days after carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings.

This all comes down to two jurors chattering on social media. It is cruel to those living without loved ones and those surviving without limbs to face another decade with no end over tweets and Facebook posts.

The appeals court writes that “virtually all prospective jurors admitted exposure to some amount of publicity regarding the case” and many in the jury pool held different opinions about the death penalty.

Yet, we must now wait as the district court in the Seaport studies jurors 138 and 286 again. The fact Juror 138 denied receiving Facebook posts where friends said Tsarnaev had “no shot in hell” and “send him to jail where he belongs” is unbelievably thin gruel — especially since he didn’t write back.

Juror 286, a female from Dorchester, tweeted on the day of the April 15, 2013, bombings that “be polite to officers” and surgeons were “forgotten heroes” and days later adding she was uplifted by “Boston Strong” photos, is also a bias. Really?

We agree with appeals Judge Jeffrey Howard who wrote in his dissenting opinion that there’s no “ancient and artificial formula” for determining bias. In forcing an investigation, he adds, the appeals court “robs” the lower court of its authority.

It doesn’t pass the smell test, our words. It is a case of politics interfering with justice, and that stinks.

When can Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu, Sean Collier and BPD Officer Dennis Simmonds rest in peace?