Judge won't delay jury selection in trial of accused Boston bomber

BOSTON -- The federal judge presiding over the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev says he won't delay jury selection.

Judge George O'Toole Jr. said in his decision Friday that jury selection will start as scheduled on Monday, because it would be too inconvenient to delay it.

Tsarnaev's lawyers had asked for a postponement while a federal appeals court decides whether to postpone the trial and move it out of Massachusetts.

More than 1,200 people have been called for jury selection. O'Toole said in Friday's decision that delaying the start "would cause some unknown degree of disruption to those people" and to the court.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges connected to the April 2013 explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

Last month, Tsarnaev returned to court for the first time since he was arraigned in July 2013. WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reported that Tsarnaev was "very much alert" during the hearing.