Accused bomber to stand trial in Boston, panel rules
Appellate court says Tsarnaev's defense team failed to fulfill a legal requirement to have the trial moved
By Doug G. Ware | Feb. 28, 2015 at 3:15 AM
BOSTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The surviving suspect in the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon two years ago will be tried in Boston, an appeals panel decided late Friday -- declining a defense motion to have the prosecution moved out of the city.
The defense team for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, had asked the panel for a change of venue, arguing that selecting an impartial jury among Boston citizens poses an enormous challenge. Tsarnaev's attorneys believe the high-profile nature of the case makes it extremely difficult to find jurors who don't already have some preconceived ideas about their client's guilt or innocence.
In a 2-to-1 vote Friday, Boston's 1st Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the motion, saying the defense team failed to meet the legal standard required to move a trial from its primary location.
"We deny the [motion] because petitioner has not met the well-established standards for such relief and so we are forbidden by law from granting it," the three-judge panel said in its ruling.
The panel said the defense failed to show that keeping the trial in Boston would cause irreparable harm to Tsarnaev.
In issuing its decision, the court cited an 1878 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that acknowledged pretrial publicity is typically present in any major criminal case.
"Scarcely any one can be found among those best fitted for jurors who has not read or heard of it, and who has not some impression or some opinion in respect to its merits," the Supreme Court ruled in Reynolds v. United States.
Further, the appeals court said knowledge of a case does not equate prejudice.
"Distinguishing between the two is at the heart of the jury selection process," the decision read.
Prosecutors have said Boston is the best suitable location to try Tsarnaev, and the appellate court agreed. Defense attorneys can still appeal to the full court of appeals, but it's not yet known if they will do so.
Tsarnaev is accused of planting two bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon with his brother, Tamerlan, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 others when they detonated near the finish line. Tamerlan was shot and killed during a police manhunt four days after the bombings.
Prosecutors say the brothers' motive to carry out the Boston Marathon attack was to retaliate for the U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After he was captured hiding in a boat in a Massachusetts neighborhood, a note investigators say was written by Tsarnaev was found there. In it, Tsarnaev had written, "we Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all." The note went on to say, "you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven, now how can you compete with that." The note is expected to be introduced at trial.
Jury selection in Tsarnaev's trial has already started and opening statements in the case are set to begin Wednesday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to all 30 felony counts against him.
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