Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is again trying to avoid execution after his death sentence was reinstated by the Supreme Court last month.
Tsarnaev’s attorneys, in a filing on Thursday, asked the US Circuit Court of Appeals to consider four constitutional claims not taken up by the high court.
His lawyers claimed the trial court “improperly forced” Tsarnaev to stand trial in Boston; allowed his “coerced confession” to be admitted as evidence; denied his challenges to two jurors accused of lying during questioning; and dismissed a potential juror because they opposed the death penalty.
The appeal was made in response to a Wednesday filing by the appeals court to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling that Tsarnaev’s execution sentence be reinstated.
“Because these four claims on direct appeal have not yet been adjudicated by any appellate court, Tsarnaev respectfully submits that the April 6 judgment was entered in error and should be vacated,” the filing states.
Prosecutors agreed that the defense’s four claims have not been resolved, but said in their response “The government believes that the defendant’s death sentences should be affirmed.”
The Supreme Court ruled by a 6-3 vote on March 4 to restore Tsarnaev’s death sentence after a federal appeals court vacated the sentence in July 2020, ruling that a trial judge improperly withheld evidence that may have shown Tsarnaev was radicalized by his deceased older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev — who was killed in a shootout with cops days after the bombing.
The US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston also cited possible juror bias over exposure to media coverage when it vacated Tsarnaev’s death sentence.
The Biden administration argued that the appeals court was wrong to toss out the death sentence imposed by a jury for Tsarnaev’s role in placing two pressure-cooker bombs that detonated near the marathon finish line in 2013. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, comprising the court’s six conservative members. “The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one.”
Tsarnaev, 28, is currently held at a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
With Post wires