Supreme Court considers fate of Boston Marathon bomber

The Biden administration will try to convince the country’s highest court next week to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, arguing that a jury need not consider the evidence on which the authorities relied on during an earlier phase of the case.

Tsarnaev’s guilt in the horrific attack near the finish line of the 2013 marathon, which left three dead and 260 injured, will not be called into question when the justices of the United States Supreme Court hear the business Wednesday. The only question before the judges is whether the 28-year-old should be sentenced to life or death in prison.

Judges are also unlikely to consider the aggressive pursuit of the administration of a death penalty for Tsarnaev – even though it has halted federal executions and President Joe Biden has called for the elimination of the death penalty.

Instead, judges will focus primarily on evidence that Tsarnaev’s lawyers believe supports their argument that his older brother, Tamerlan, organized the attack and emotionally dominated his younger brother in terrorist activity. The evidence involved Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a triple murder in the Boston suburb of Waltham on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

A Boston federal appeals court ruled last year that the trial judge erred in excluding the evidence and overturning Tsarnaev’s death sentence.

Last year, former Attorney General Bill Barr told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump’s administration would do “whatever it takes” to restore Tsarnaev’s death penalty.

The Trump administration appealed the lower court’s decision and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the case after the Biden administration indicated no change in point of view.

Tsarnaev was found guilty of all 30 charges against him, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction. The appeals court upheld all but a few of his convictions.

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