WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sounds ready to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
In more than 90 minutes of arguments Wednesday, the court’s six conservative justices seemed likely to embrace the Biden administration’s argument that a federal appeals court mistakenly threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence for his role in the bombing that killed three people near the finish line of the marathon in 2013.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled last year that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev was deeply influenced by his older brother and was somehow less responsible for the carnage.
Tsarnaev’s guilt in the shocking bombing near the finish line of the marathon in 2013 was not at issue in the case being disputed. Instead, the justices heard arguments over whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or death.
Originally, a federal judge imposed a death sentence and multiple consecutive life sentences for Tsarnaev in 2015.
A federal jury recommended Tsarnaev be sentenced to death. The counts on which the jury recommended a death sentence related to the pressure cooker bomb the man planted and detonated in front of a restaurant.
The same jury convicted Tsarnaev on all 30 counts he was facing in the case.
