The Supreme Court of the United States has reinstated this Friday the death penalty sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 28, the terrorist of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The six conservative justices agreed that the federal appeals court was wrong by annulling the sentence imposed on Tsarnaev for the massacre committed together with his older brother Tamerlan, who died during the flight in a shootout with the police. The bomb attack left three dead and 264 wounded. The three progressive members of the High Court voted against, despite the fact that the Joe Biden Administration was in favor.
A Boston appeals court ruled in 2020 that the judge in Tsarnaev’s 2015 trial excluded evidence that could have shown that the then-murderer had been radicalized and indoctrinated by his older brother, implicated in a triple murder in the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The court considered that this argument could have reduced some degree of responsibility in the attack and pointed to the judge for not sufficiently questioning the jurors about how exposed they had been to the media coverage of the event that went around the world.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes. However, he was guaranteed the right to the Sixth Amendment: a fair trial before an impartial jury,” Judge Clarence Thomas wrote, representing the majority of the Supreme Court, made up of six talkers and three progressives. In his response rejecting the ruling, Judge Stephen Breyer, who will step down in July, said: “In my opinion, the Court of Appeals acted legitimately in holding that the district court should have allowed Dzhokhar to present the evidence. ”.
The Supreme Court was not to rule on Tsarnaev’s guilt, but on whether he should be executed or jailed for life. Breyer has requested in his brief that the High Court reconsider the death penalty. Biden has said that he opposes the maximum sentence, but his Administration defended the sentence received by Tsarnaev.
“Congratulations to everyone who worked tirelessly for justice,” Adrianne Haslet, a professional dancer who lost a leg in the attacks, posted on Twitter. Dic Donohue, a transit police officer who was seriously injured in a shootout with the two attackers, tweeted: “Bottom line: He can’t kill anyone else.”
The possibility that Tsarnaev will be executed in the short term is slim. Biden’s Justice Department halted federal death sentences last summer after the Trump administration carried out 13 executions in the last six months of his term, breaking a 17-year period in which there were no federal executions.
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