Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Asks For Stay Of Death Sentence

Boston MA

08 April, 2022

9:41 AM

Description

BOSTON — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is appealing his death sentence again, asking the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to consider four constitutional claims that he says were not presented during his U.S. Supreme Court case. According to a new court filing, Tsarnaev's attorneys say the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts improperly forced him to stand trial in Boston, denied his challenges to two jurors who they claim lied in court, dismissed a juror who opposed the death penalty and admitted to evidence that was gathered during what they called a "coerced confession." Despite President Joe Biden calling for an end to the federal death penalty, his Justice Department pushed for it to be reinstated last month, claiming Tsarnaev received a fair trial for his role in the bombings. Tsarnaev, now 28, was sentenced to death after being convicted of placing a pressure-cooker bomb outside the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street on April 15, 2013, during the Boston Marathon. This led to an explosion that killed three and injured more than 260 others. The bombing took the lives of 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester and Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China. At the time, Tsarnaev was 19. Krystle Campbell, 29, a restaurant manager from Medford, was killed by a pressure-cooker bomb placed by his brother, Tamerlan. Tamerlan also shot and killed MIT police Officer Sean Collier while fleeing the bombings. Tamerlan was killed during a confrontation with police in Watertown hours later. Tsarnaev remains in prison in Colorado.