There’s a new turn in the Boston bomber case.
On Tuesday, The attorney for the surviving Boston Marathon bomber asked a federal appeals court to overturn his client’s death sentence.
Daniel Habib, who represents Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is arguing his client’s death sentence should be overturned because of juror misconduct during the trial. The death sentence was first handed down by a federal jury in 2015 and reimposed by the Supreme Court last year. (RELATED: Supreme Court Reinstates Death Penalty for Boston Bomber)
According to the Associated Press, the attorney told the First Circuit Court of Appeals that his client’s sentence should be lifted because of issues the Supreme Court did not consider in its March 2022 ruling, such as two jurors accused of lying during jury selection.
Habib said that one juror claimed not to have posted on social media about the bomber, but had shared a post calling the defendant a “piece of garbage.” Another juror had claimed that none of his Facebook friends had posted about the trial, but one friend had pushed the juror to “play the part” to get on the jury and convict the defendant.
According to The Daily Wire, Justice Department attorney William Glaser responded to the allegation and admitted to inaccurate statements made by some jurors. However, Glaser noted no evidence suggests the jurors acted in bad faith or in a manner that would warrant the ruling be overturned.
“There is no indication in this record that the inaccuracies were the kind of knowing dishonesty that would lead to disqualification,” Glaser said,
The First Circuit judges appeared to entertain Habib’s argument. The First Circuit overturned the bomber’s death sentence in 2020.
The Supreme Court justices, agreeing with the Biden administration, voted 6-3 that the 1st Circuit’s ruling was wrong.
“Don’t we need to know why it was inaccurate before we know whether it was evidence of some bias or an innocent mistake?” Judge William Kayatta said.
“This case should not have been tried in Boston. [The bomber] admitted heinous crimes, but even so — perhaps especially so — this trial demanded scrupulous adherence to the requirements of the Constitution and federal law. Again and again this trial fell short,” the bomber’s legal team said.
Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev killed three people and injured hundreds more with two bombs planted near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013. The brother died after a shootout with police.
Tsarnaev was convicted of all 30 charges against him in 2015, including the killing of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier during the Tsarnaev brothers’ getaway attempt.
READ NEXT: Another Batch of Classified Documents Discovered at Location Associated With Biden >>
This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.
