BOSTON Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could be executed after the US Supreme Court said on Monday it will consider reinstating the death penalty.
Tsarnaev, 27, was convicted of dozens of crimes in the 2013 terror attack that left three people dead and injured more than 260 others, including 17 who lost limbs.
He originally received the death sentence following his conviction in 2015, however the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit threw out the ruling last year.
That decision came after it was determined the judge in the trial had failed to ensure a fair jury free of bias after relentless media coverage of the attack.
While calling Tsarnaev’s actions “unspeakably brutal” and insisting he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, the federal appeals court said the terrorist should be given a new penalty-phase trial.
Then-Attorney General William Barr pledged to appeal the decision and the Justice Department followed through on that promise last October.
The Supreme Court then agreed to hear that appeal on Monday.
The case won’t be heard until the fall, and it’s unclear how the new administration will approach Tsarnaev’s case.
The Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to step in, arguing the bombs “caused devastating injuries that left the street with a ravaged, combat-zone look” with “blood and body parts everywhere, littered among BB’s, nails, metal scraps and glass fragments.”
They also pointed out that a new penalty-phase trial would likely force victims of the bombings to re-take to the stands.
Then-acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall argued that “victims, potential jurors, the district court, the government and the nation” should not have to bear the burdens that come with the capital sentence.
The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.
But Biden has pledged to seek an end to the federal death penalty, presenting the president with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, carried out executions of 13 federal inmates in its final six months in office.
Tsarnaev was convicted of joining his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in planting two pressure-cooker bombs at the crowded finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Killed in the blasts were Krystle Campbell, 29, eight-year-old Martin Richard and 23-year-old Lu Lingzi.
MIT campus police officer, Sean Collier, 26, was fatally shot in a shoot-out with the brothers that also left Tamerlan dead.
In making its ruling last year, the appeals court said the judge at Tsarnaev’s trial improperly blocked evidence about a 2011 Boston-area murder, in which three men were bound, beaten and killed.
The FBI interviewed a man who said he was there when Tsarnaev’s older brother carried out the murders.
The trial judge ruled that the testimony was both unproven and too-far removed from the bombings, however the appeals court said the defense was unfairly deprived of evidence that showed Tamerlan was violent and domineering.
“Tamerlan’s alleged commission of independent crimes almost two years before the bombing had no reasonable prospect of altering the jury’s recommendation” that Tsarnaev receive the death penalty, the government argued in its appeal.
During the trial, Tsarnaev’s lawyers didn’t deny his involvement in the bombings, however said he was easily manipulated by his “mastermind” brother.
