UPDATED: U.S. Supreme Court Reinstates Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
GoLocalProv News Team
UPDATED: U.S. Supreme Court Reinstates Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
The 6-3 ruling -- in reversing a lower court’s ruling -- rejected defense arguments that the judge at Tsarnaev’s 2015 criminal trial incorrectly ruled on issues relating to the jury selection and evidence presented in the case.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes,” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in the opinion of the court.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is reversed,” wrote Thomas.
Governor Baker Issues Comment
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who supported the jury’s decision in 2015 to impose a death sentence on Mr. Tsarnaev, welcomed the ruling.
“While nothing can ever bring back those we lost on that terrible day, I hope today’s decision will bring some sense of justice for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing and their families,” he said.
About Boston Bombing
Three people, including an 8-year-old child, were killed and hundreds were wounded when two pressure-cooker bombs filled with metal shrapnel detonated near the crowded marathon finish line on April 15, 2013.
Prosecutors had called it “one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks since the 9/11 atrocities.”
Dzhokhar and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, fled the scene, resulting in a four-day manhunt during which Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot dead.
Tamerlan died in a gunfight with police in Watertown, Massachusetts; Dhzokhar was found hours later hiding in a boat stored in a nearby backyard.