Supreme Court Rules on Boston Marathon Bomber's Death Sentence, Justice Thomas Crushes 'Unfair Trial' Argument
The Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday, The Associated Press reported.
Lawyers for the Biden administration had argued in favor of the death penalty in spite of President Joe Biden’s vocal opposition to capital punishment.
Tsarnaev carried out the 2013 bombing of the marathon with his brother, also shooting and killing a police officer during a days-long manhunt that terrorized Boston.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gun battle with police a few days after the bombing.
Three people were killed by the jihadist duo, including a police officer who was shot in the head, and 264 people were injured in the bombing.
A federal appeals court ruled in 2020 that Tsarnaev, an Islamic extremist, had been influenced by his brother in the bombing of the marathon to justify commuting his original sentence to life imprisonment.
The court also concluded that the judge didn’t properly vet jurors to counteract bias in Tsarnaev’s original trial.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a majority opinion defending the legal validity of Tsarnaev’s original trial, according to The Associated Press.
“The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one,” Thomas said.
The Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the death penalty for Tsarnaev in a 6-3 decision on Friday, with the court’s conservative justices voting in favor.
The Biden administration has imposed a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the federal justice system, even though its lawyers argued in favor of execution.
As such, the prospects of Tsarnaev’s execution are unclear.
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