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The Supreme Court reimposes a death sentence for the Boston bomber

The Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The justices, by a 6-3 vote Friday, agreed with the Biden administration's arguments that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the sentence of death a jury imposed on Tsarnaev for his role in the bombing.
Mariam Zuhaib
/
AP
The Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The justices, by a 6-3 vote Friday, agreed with the Biden administration's arguments that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the sentence of death a jury imposed on Tsarnaev for his role in the bombing.

The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the convicted Boston Marathon bomber.

The vote was 6 to 3, with all the liberal justices in dissent.

The Supreme Court was reviewing the decision of a federal appeals court in Boston that overturned the death sentence imposed on Tsarnaev. The attack in 2013 killed three people and left hundreds injured.

When the case was heard in October last year, the justices focused on the trial judge's refusal to allow evidence that the defense said would show that Dzhokhar, 19 at the time of the bombing, was under the influence of his brother Tamerlan, seven years older. The judge would not allow the jury to hear evidence allegedly showing that Tamerlan two years before the bombing slit the throats of three men in Waltham, Mass., in an act of jihad on the anniversary of the 9/11 attack.

Justice Elena Kagan questioned the omission of that evidence at the penalty phase of the trial, when the defense is supposed to be allowed leeway in showing why the defendant is less culpable, and not deserving of the death penalty. Justice Stephen Breyer seemed to agree.

At the time, several of the court's conservatives chimed in to note that all the participants in the Waltham killings are now dead — Tamerlan and the friend who identified him as the killer are dead: Tamerlan after a shootout with police after the Boston bombing; the friend a month later after he attacked FBI agents.

A Department of Justice moratorium on federal executions remains in place while Attorney General Merrick Garland reviews it.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit www.npr.org.

Nina Totenberg is NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.
Ryan Ellingson
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