Trump pushes for ‘do-over’ on death penalty sentence for Boston bomber Tsarnaev
President Trump is calling for a “do-over” after a federal appeals court on Friday tossed out the death sentence against convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
“The Federal Government must again seek the Death Penalty in a do-over of that chapter of the original trial. Our Country cannot let the appellate decision stand,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
The Justice Department is expected to appeal, but legal observers warned it would rip open old wounds by forcing the city to relive the trauma of the twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 others on Boylston Street on April 15, 2013.
“It is now up to the government to determine whether to put the victims and Boston through a second trial, or to allow closure to this terrible tragedy by permitting a sentence of life without the possibility of release,” David Patton — Tsarnaev’s defense attorney wrote in an email to the Associated Press.
Trump derided the time it has taken the courts to adjudicate Tsarnaev’s case in a series of tweets Sunday saying, “It is ridiculous that this process is taking so long!”
“Rarely has anybody deserved the death penalty more than the Boston Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The court agreed that this ‘was one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks since the 9/11 atrocities.’ Yet the appellate court tossed out the death sentence. So many lives lost and ruined,” Trump continued on Twitter.
Legal observers predict prosecutors will turn straight to the U.S. Supreme Court without asking for a hearing before the full 1st Circuit, where they are likely to earn a favorable ruling faster.
“When it comes to death penalty cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has been much more pro-prosecution than many of the circuit courts,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
The U.S. government recently resumed federal executions following a 17-year pause and, under President Trump, has pursued capital punishment in an increasing number of cases.
The mother of two bombing victims who lost their legs in the attacks called the court’s decision a “punch to the stomach.” Liz Norden vowed to attend any future hearings and told the Herald she would, “absolutely will go wherever the trial is held.”
U.S. Appeals Court of the First Circuit Judge Rogeriee Thompson vacated Tsarnaev’s death penalty sentence in a 224-page Friday ruling, saying jurors were not adequately screened for bias ahead of Tsarnaev’s 2015 trial amid media attention “unrivaled in American legal history.”
The ruling found a district court judge didn’t question potential jurors to the extent that past precedent has determined is necessary when trying high-publicity crimes, noting it would be up to a new jury decide whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed.
Convictions on most of the 30 charges — including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction — against Tsarnaev were upheld. The judges affirmed his life sentences — and his assignment to a notorious supermax prison in Colorado.
The three-judge panel was split on whether the case should be moved to another jurisdiction — with three saying it was not an error to have the trial in Boston — but noted that, “given the sizable passage of time, the venue issue should look quite different the second time around.”
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/33lJz9I
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