A federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Friday, July 31, 2020, saying the judge who oversaw the case didn't adequately screen jurors for potential biases.
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.
Should Friday's ruling stand, attention will shift to whether an impartial jury can be impaneled in a city still traumatized by the 2013 attack.
Tsarnaev's defense team may renew its request to transfer the case out of Boston, where they have long contended public opinion is immutably slanted.
Everybody in the community understands where Boston Strong came from, Dunham said.