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US Supreme Court Could Reimpose Boston Marathon Bomber Death Sentence

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating
   the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,
   presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to
   capital punishment.

   The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump
   administration, which carried out executions of 13 federal inmates in
   its final six months in office.

   The case won't be heard until the fall, and it's unclear how the new
   administration will approach Tsarnaev's case. 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.

   In August, the federal appeals court in Boston threw out Tsarnaev's
   sentence because it said the judge at his trial did not do enough to
   ensure the jury would not be biased against him.

   The Justice Department had moved quickly to appeal, asking the justices
   to hear and decide the case by the end of the court's current term, in
   early summer. Then-Attorney General William Barr said last year, "We
   will do whatever's necessary."

   Tsarnaev's lawyers acknowledged at the beginning of his trial that he
   and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the two bombs at the
   marathon finish line in 2013. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is
   less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind
   the attack.

   Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died following a gunfight with police and being
   run over by his brother as he fled. Police captured a bloodied and
   wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours later in the Boston suburb of
   Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard.

   Tsarnaev, now 27, was convicted of all 30 charges against him,
   including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction and the
   killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer
   during the Tsarnaev brothers' getaway attempt. The appeals court upheld
   all but a few of his convictions.

   The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made
   by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.