The United State’s Supreme Court on Friday reimposed the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, reversing a federal appeals court ruling that had voided it.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices sided with the justice department’s challenge to a 2020 lower court ruling that had upheld Tsarnaev’s conviction but overturned his death sentence.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes. The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one,” the conservative justice, Clarence Thomas, wrote for the court.
Recall that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ordered a new sentencing hearing, ruling unanimously that U.S. District Judge, George O’Toole Jr., failed to allow enough questioning of potential jurors about how closely they followed extensive news coverage of the bombings.
But the Supreme Court on Friday disagreed on that issue.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said, “trial judges have broad discretion in deciding what questions to ask prospective jurors. That discretion does not vanish when a case garners public attention.”
The government also argued that holding a new sentencing hearing would further traumatize the Boston community, forcing the bombing victims to once again take the stand to describe the horrors that Tsarnaev inflicted on them.
As a result of the ruling, Tsarnaev, who is now 28, will remain on death row at Colorado’s supermax prison.
Although Attorney General, Merrick Garland, ordered a moratorium on executions in the federal system, the Biden Justice Department nonetheless took the same position it did under the Trump administration, defending the death sentence for the bombing.
Garland’s order did not stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the case.
Joe Biden had promised to work to pass legislation in Congress to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and set incentives for states to do as well, instead endorsing life sentences without probation or parole.
But his administration last year opted to proceed with an appeal initially launched by the justice department under his predecessor Donald Trump to defend Tsarnaev’s death sentence.
The court’s six conservative justices were in the majority, with its three liberals dissenting.
In a second phase of the trial, the same jury recommended capital punishment for the deaths of the two people killed by the bomb the younger Tsarnaev placed.
His older brother was killed in a shootout with police four days after the bombing.