Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal to reinstate Boston Bomber’s death sentence 

BREAKING: Supreme Court agrees to hear the government’s appeal to reinstate Boston Bomber’s death sentence

  • The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the Justice Department’s appeal to reinstate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence
  • The appeal challenged a lower court’s decision ordering a new trial over the sentence Tsarnaev should receive for death penalty-eligible crimes 
  • Three people were killed and more than 260 were wounded when Tsarnaev and his brother set off two pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon in 2013

The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider the Justice Department’s bid to reinstate Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence for helping carry out the 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others 

The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the Justice Department’s appeal to reinstate Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence. 

The appeal filed under the Trump administration, which carried out the executions of 13 federal inmates in its final six months in office, challenged a lower court’s decision ordering a new trial over the sentence Tsarnaev should receive for the death penalty-eligible crimes for which he was convicted. 

Three people were killed and more than 260 others were wounded when Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan set off two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013.    

Justices won’t hear the appeal until the fall, and it’s unclear how the new administration will approach Tsarnaev’s case. 

The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.

But Biden has pledged to seek an end to the federal death penalty.

Three people were killed and more than 260 others were wounded when Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan set off two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013

Three people were killed and more than 260 others were wounded when Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan set off two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013

Tsarnaev, 27, was convicted of dozens of crimes in the 2013 terror attack and was sentenced to death in 2015. 

The US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit threw out the death sentence last year, ruling that the judge in Tsarnaev’s trial did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases following pervasive media coverage of the attack.  

The appeals court also ruled the judge unfairly excluded evidence implicating Tamerlan.  

The Justice Department led by then-Attorney General William Barr filed its appeal in October, arguing that retrying the case would force victims of the attack to take the stand a second time. 

This is a developing story.  

In this May 15, 2015 courtroom sketch, Tsarnaev (center) stands with his defense attorneys at the Moakley Federal court house in the penalty phase of his trial in Boston

In this May 15, 2015 courtroom sketch, Tsarnaev (center) stands with his defense attorneys at the Moakley Federal court house in the penalty phase of his trial in Boston