The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether the death sentence should be reinstated for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of carrying out the deadly Boston Marathon bombing. The court's liberal justices grilled a Biden administration lawyer who argued that they should reimpose the death penalty for Tsarnaev, The sentence was recommended by a jury but vacated by an appeals court.
Some of the court's conservatives, who outnumber the liberals six to three, appeared skeptical of the arguments made by Tsarnaev's attorney. The justices focused largely on evidence involving Tsarnaev's late brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that was omitted from Dzhokhar's trial in federal district court in Massachusetts.
Defense lawyers said the district court's exclusion of that evidence — which was related to a triple murder that Tamerlan's friend accused him of committing — undermined their case that Tamerlan influenced Dzhokhar. Justice Elena Kagan noted to Deputy Solicitor General Eric Feigin that the jury was allowed to hear evidence about Tamerlan "poking somebody in the chest" and shouting at people "all because that showed what kind of person Tamerlan was and what kind of influence he might have had over his [younger] brother.
The federal government has argued to the Supreme Court that the appellate judgment was wrong, and that the U. Lawyers for Tsarnaev have responded that even if the high court vacated the appellate ruling and sent the case back for further review, issues with the jury and the evidence presented during Tsarnaev's trial would lead to the same outcome.
The federal government is pushing for the death penalty for Tsarnaev even as President Joe Biden's Justice Department takes action to halt federal executions. Hear her message for Biden.
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The justices appeared to be divided along familiar ideological lines, however, as they considered a federal appeals court decision that had wiped away the sentence citing errors made by the district court concerning the admissibility of a piece of evidence. Conservatives on the bench suggested that the evidence was unreliable and should not have been presented to the jury. But the three liberal justices said it pertained to the heart of Tsarnaev's argument: that he should not receive the death penalty, because it was his brother who took the lead in executing the bombing.
Tsarnaev was convicted in in the deaths of Krystle Campbell , Martin Richard and Lingzi Lu at the marathon and Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier several days later, among other charges.
Hundreds were injured after Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan set off two shrapnel bombs near the finish line, leaving the sidewalks strewn with BBs, nails, metal scraps and glass fragments.
Read More. Tamerlan Tsarnaev would later die in a gunfight with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held in federal prison in Florence, Colorado, after a guilty verdict and a jury recommendation of death.
This Boston Marathon bombing survivor is on a mission to give fellow amputees the prosthetic legs insurance won't cover. In July , a federal appeals court said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would remain in prison for the rest of his life for "unspeakably brutal acts" but that he should be given a new penalty-phase trial, citing issues concerning juror selection and pretrial publicity as well as the exclusion of evidence that may have helped his case. The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the death penalty with directions to hold a new penalty-phase trial but warned: "Make no mistake" -- Tsarnaev "will spend his remaining days locked up in prison.
A lawyer for the Biden administration on Wednesday called Tsarnaev a "terrorist" who acted in "furtherance of Jihad" and urged the justices to restore the jury's recommendation of death after the "carnage at the finish line. The justices spent most of their time focusing on the evidence that a district court excluded from the penalty phase of the trial.
Three crosses for each of the three people killed in the Boston Marathon bombings at a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts, April 18, Norden's two adult sons lost their right legs. Borgard sustained hearing loss and a brain injury. Yet they and others affected by the attack that killed three people and wounded more disagree about whether convicted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be executed - a question the U.
Supreme Court will consider on Wednesday when the justices hear the U. But for me, I wanted it. Borgard, who also attended the trial, is against executions of anyone. The Supreme Court is set to hear the federal government's appeal of a lower court ruling overturning Tsarnaev's death sentence and requiring a new trial to determine whether he should get life in prison instead. Two ethnic Chechen brothers carried out one of the most shocking attacks on U.
Tsarnaev, who is 28 now and was 19 at the time, and his older brother Tamerlan detonated two homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon's finish line on April 15,
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