Boston Marathon bombing

Did Boston Marathon Bomber Get Fair Trial? Court Hears Arguments

A handful of survivors and their supporters sat silently in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals room to observe the latest chapter in the April 15, 2013 attack

NBCUniversal, Inc. Attorneys for convicted Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, appeared before a federal judge Thursday to plead for a new trial for their client.

The Boston Marathon bomber's lawyers urged a federal court to overturn their client's death sentence, arguing Thursday that intense media coverage and signs of juror bias led to an unfair trial.

The three-judge panel didn't render a decision after hearing from both sides for about an hour each. 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of all 30 charges against him, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction, didn't attend the hearing. Tsarnaev, now 26, is in a supermax prison in Colorado.

Attorneys for convicted Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, appeared before a federal judge Thursday to plead for a new trial for their client.

A handful of survivors and their supporters sat silently in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals room to observe the latest chapter in the April 15, 2013 attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. 

"I thought this was all over," Melida Arredondo remarked briefly as she left the courthouse.

She said she attended because her husband, Carlos, who had helped victims at the finish line, had been at every day of the 2015 trial but couldn't make it Thursday.

Tsarnaev's lawyer Daniel Habib argued the trial should have been held in another city because of intense local media coverage and the emotional toll the attack had on the region.

But Judge William Kayatta noted that polling submitted by the defense ahead of the 2015 trial suggested that almost two-thirds of Boston-area residents hadn't decided whether they thought Tsarnaev deserved the death penalty.

Necn’s Alysha Palumbo and Daily Beast reporter Susan Zalkind joined necn to discuss Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s family testifying for the defense in his death penalty trial.

He also said the poll's findings suggested there wasn't a great disparity in public opinion of the case in Boston over other cities where the trial could have been held, such as New York.

The appellate judges focused most of their attention on questions surrounding two jurors who were allowed to remain on the case, even after defense lawyers uncovered social media posts suggesting they harbored strong opinions.

In one instance, a juror published two dozen tweets after the bombings, including retweeting one after Tsarnaev's arrest that read: "Congratulations to all of the law enforcement professionals who worked so hard and went through hell to bring in that piece of garbage."

That juror, who would go one to become the foreperson, or chief spokesperson, had also tweeted about her family's experience sheltering in place along with thousands of other Greater Boston residents during the hunt for the bombers, Tsarnaev's lawyers said.

Another juror posted on Facebook as he was going through the jury selection process. His friends encouraged him to "play the part" in order to get on the jury and make sure Tsarnaev was convicted.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a child with his older brother, Tamerlan.
necn
A photo of the boat that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid in.
FILE - Getty Images
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 15: In this image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on April 19, 2013, two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing walk near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. The twin bombings at the 116-year-old Boston race resulted in the deaths of three people with more than 170 others injured. (Photo provided by FBI via Getty Images)
FILE - Getty Images
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 15: In this image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on April 18, 2013, two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing walk near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. The twin bombings at the 116-year-old Boston race resulted in the deaths of three people with more than 170 others injured. (Photo provided by FBI via Getty Images)
FILE - Getty Images
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 15: In this image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on April 18, 2013, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing walks near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. The twin bombings at the 116-year-old Boston race resulted in the deaths of three people with more than 170 others injured. (Photo provided by FBI via Getty Images)
AP
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, left, is depicted beside U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. in a courtroom sketch from early January.
AP
In this courtroom sketch, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is depicted sitting in federal court in Boston Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, for a final hearing before his trial begins in January. Tsarnaev is charged with the April 2013 attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. He could face the death penalty if convicted. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)
Art Lien
Jury selection
Kaitlin Flanigan
Some of the Tsarnaev defense team arrives at court.
Kaitlin Flanigan
There's intense security surrounding the courthouse in Boston.
Kaitlin Flanigan
Media stationed outside the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse.
Kaitlin Flanigan
A lone protester outside the courthouse where the Tsarnaev trial is underway.
Kaitlin Flanigan
A police dog is sniffing around the media barricade outside the courthouse.
Jeff Saperstone
Marathon survivors arrive at the courthouse.
Coast Guard boat patrolling the bay behind the courthouse.
Prosecutor William Weinreb makes the opening statement in the trial of alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on March 4.
Art Lien
Lawyer Judy Clarke shows jurors photos of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan during opening statement
Art Lien
Head of Boston Athletic Assoc, Tom Grilk
Art Lien
Victims of Marathon bombing in courtroom
AP/Jane Flavell Collins
In this courtroom sketch, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, center, is depicted between defense attorneys Miriam Conrad, left, and Judy Clarke, right, during his federal death penalty trial, Thursday, March 5, 2015, in Boston. Tsarnaev is charged with conspiring with his brother to place two bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line in April 2013, killing three and injuring 260 people.
A photo released by the U.S. government of the bullet-ridded, blood-stained writings by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a Watertown, Massachusetts, boat.
Another photo released by the U.S. government of Tsarnaev's writings in the Watertown boat he hid in during the manhunt.
Another photo released by the U.S. government of Tsarnaev's writings in the Watertown boat he hid in during the manhunt.
Art Lien
Jurors in the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Monday visited the bullet-riddled boat in which he was captured days after the deadly blast in this sketch.
Art Lien
This sketch shows bags and boxes of evidence at the Tsarnaev trial on March 18, 2015.
Alysha Palumbo
Image from the Watertown, Mass. firefight, where a pressure cooker was embedded in a parked car.
Alysha Palumbo
Pressure cooker in the parked car from Watertown, Mass.
Alysha Palumbo
Pressure cooker lock found embedded in a home on Laurel St.
Alysha Palumbo
Side view of transmitter found in computer bag on Laurel St.
Alysha Palumbo
Computer bag found near green Honda Civic on Laurel St. with "transmitter" inside.
Alysha Palumbo
Pressure cooker lid inside a hockey net on Laurel St.
Art Lien
This sketch shows bags and boxes of evidence at Tsarnaev trial on March 18.
Alysha Palumbo/necn
This is the Samsung laptop Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly took with him to Russia. It was found in Watertown.
Alysha Palumbo/necn
Fireworks evidence from the Tsarnaev trial
Art Lien
This April 21, 2015, courtroom sketch depicts prosecutors showing a photograph of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev giving the finger to a jail cell surveillance camera.
This photo shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his holding cell flipping off the camera three weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings.
A photo of Tamerlan Tsarnaev from his 2012 trip to Russia.
More photos of a young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
More photos of a young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
More photos of a young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
More photos of a young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
More photos of a young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Art Lien
Judy Clarke argues against death for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a child with his older brother, Tamerlan.
Art Lien
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Mellin with the jury, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the foreground.

Tsarnaev's lawyers had raised the social media comments as reasons to disqualify the two jurors before the trial even started, but prosecutors downplayed them, and Judge George O'Toole allowed them to remain on the case.

Under the district court's rules, the trial judge was obligated to ask more detailed follow-up questions after the social media posts came to light, said Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson.

"The judge didn't ask anything of that juror, who was right in the building," Kayatta said at one point. "It's very puzzling."

Federal prosecutor William Glaser acknowledged O'Toole never asked the two jurors any follow-up questions, but he argued the judge took the concerns seriously at the time. O'Toole, he said, re-reviewed the transcripts of the jurors' prior interviews before making his decision.

"This isn't an instance of the court conducting no inquiry at all," Glaser said.

The appellate judges asked relatively fewer questions about the contention from Tsarnaev's lawyers that O'Toole wrongly excluded evidence connecting Dzhokhar's older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to a still-unsolved triple murder in Massachusetts in 2011, less than two years prior to the bombing.

During the 2015 trial, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers did not dispute that their client was involved in the marathon attack. 

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death Friday for his role in the terrorist attack.

But they had hoped to argue for a life sentence rather than death by demonstrating that 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalized, violent and the mastermind behind the attack, while his younger brother had merely followed along.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gun battle with police days after the brothers detonated two pressure cooker bombs near the marathon finish line.

If the sentence is overturned, prosecutors can seek a new death penalty trial or allow Tsarnaev to accept the life sentence his lawyers originally sought. 

If the sentence is upheld, his lawyers have other options for appeal, including to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Robert Bloom, a Boston College law professor, said Tsarnaev's lawyers have a compelling case to make.

The death penalty trial of 1995 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was moved to Denver over similar concerns about impartiality, he noted.

"The Boston Marathon is in the very DNA of the city. It's like Fenway Park and Paul Revere's house," Bloom said. "And the bombing affected everyone. Everyone had to shelter in place. Everyone had those Boston Strong shirts."

Copyright The Associated Press
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