Feds grilled about jury screening in bomber case
BOSTON — Federal appellate judges grilled U.S. prosecutors Thursday on the screening of jurors who convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in 2015, raising the possibility his death sentence might not stand and a new trial could be ordered.
At Tsarnaev’s appeal hearing, the threejudge panel questioned why potential members of the Boston-based jury were not posed “content” questions about their understanding of the case to detect bias created by the “enormous publicity” surrounding the bombings.
U.S. Court of Appeals Judge William J. Kayatta Jr. led the sharp questioning.
“You’ve got lots of qualifiable jurors in Boston. Your own data shows it,” he told one of the government’s prosecutors. “You just need to make sure that the government doesn’t cause the court to pick the wrong ones. But it’s sounding like you did.”
Kayatta later questioned how the lower court, at the government’s objection, didn’t allow the defense to ask certain questions of potential jurors.
Tsarnaev’s attorneys agree their client was responsible for the April 15, 2013, twin bombings at the marathon’s finish-line that killed three people and injured 264 people more. But they contend that he was less culpable than his accomplice, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by authorities following a four-day manhunt.
They argued that Tsarnaev, 26, did not receive a fair trial in the city where the bombings occurred because of relentless media coverage and citywide trauma that “filtered” into the jury pool. They said two jurors lied by concealing remarks made on social media about the case before the trial.
The appeals court adjourned without a decision and gave no indication about when a ruling might come. Tsarnaev’s lawyers have asked for a retrial of his conviction and death sentence, but because of his admission of guilt, they acknowledged any judicial action likely would apply only to sentencing.