Supreme Court to weigh execution for Boston bomber
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider the Justice Department's bid to reinstate the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Jurors in 2015 had sentenced Tsarnaev to death for helping to carry out the deadly 2013 bomb blast, but an appeals court later ordered a new trial regarding the sentence he should receive.
That ruling was in turn challenged by the Trump-era DOJ, which, in an effort to reinstate Tsarnaev’s death sentence, argued that the appeals court’s decision should be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court – which it will now be.
President Joe Biden's administration has given no indication it plans to reverse the Trump administration's approach to the case, as it has done in several other cases pending at the court – despite Biden having said on the campaign trail that he would seek to end the federal death penalty.
Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, detonated two homemade pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon’s finish line in April of 2013. Three people were killed and over 260 were injured.
A massive manhunt ensued in the days that followed. The two brothers, while on the run, also killed a police officer. Tsarnaev's brother later died after a gunfight with police.
The justices will hear oral arguments regarding the DOJ’s appeal and issue a ruling in the court's next term, which starts in October.
