Supreme Court Reinstates Death Sentence For Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev is at the supermax Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colorado.
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, which killed three people near the finish line of the marathon in 2013.
The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled in 2020 that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev was deeply influenced by his older brother, Tamerlan, and was somehow less responsible for the carnage. The appeals court also faulted the judge for not sufficiently questioning jurors about their exposure to extensive news coverage of the bombing.
"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority. "The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is reversed."
The court's three liberal justices represented all the votes against reinstating the death penalty. In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, "In my view, the Court of Appeals acted lawfully in holding that the District Court should have allowed Dzhokhar to introduce this evidence."
The prospect that Tsarnaev, now 28, will be executed anytime soon is remote. The Justice Department halted federal executions last summer after the Trump administration carried out 13 executions in its final six months.
President Joe Biden has said he opposes the death penalty, but his administration was put in the position of defending Tsarnaev's sentence at the Supreme Court.
In Boston, WBZ-TV's Chief Investigative Reporter Cheryl Fiandaca outlined what Tsarnaev's current living situation in prison looks like.
"He'll just stay in what's called Supermax, and that's where he is in Colorado. It's a very secure facility that is run by the federal government in the middle of nowhere," Fiandaca stated.
Fiandaca said Tsarnaev has very little contact with other people at Supermax.
"Everything is very automated there, which means he has very little contact with any human," Fiandaca said. "He's very limited in the activities he can participate in. Business and any kind of interaction with anybody else is very limited. So he's basically in a very isolated situation and has been for many years."
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(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press's Mark Sherman contributed to this report.)
