Justices Hint at Death Penalty Reinstatement for Marathon Bomber
- Supreme Court considers reinstating Tsarnaev’s death sentence
- Conservatives skeptical of ruling that tossed death sentence
A photo released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Supreme Court justices indicated they are likely to reinstate the death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted of setting off one of the bombs that killed three people at the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Hearing arguments in Washington Wednesday, the court’s conservatives voiced skepticism about a federal appeals court decision that threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence.
The appeals court ruled that a federal trial judge improperly limited questioning of prospective jurors about pretrial media coverage they consumed. The panel also said the judge should have allowed evidence involving a previous crime that Tsarnaev says showed he was acting under the influence of his older brother, Tamerlan.