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Boston Marathon bombings trial: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev jury selection begins Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 'impassive' as Boston Marathon bombing trial begins
(about 2 hours later)
Potential jurors stared intently at Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as jury selection in his federal death penalty trial began Monday under tight security. Bright winter sunshine drenched the John Joseph Moakley district court building in Boston as the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused of involvement in the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013 that killed three people and injured more than 260 others, began on Monday morning.
Tsarnaev, flanked by his attorneys, sat at a table in the front of the jury assembly room. Wearing a dark sweater and khaki trousers, he picked at his beard, looked at the potential jurors and looked at the judge. Tsarnaev, who is now 21, entered the courtroom awkwardly, in white jeans and a dark sweater. Wearing no handcuffs, he reclined, his legs splayed wide beneath the table. For most of the judge’s address, he leaned on his elbows or clasped his hands tightly in front of him.
Over the next three days, about 1,200 people will be called to federal court to be considered as potential jurors. The first 200 were given initial instructions Monday by Judge George O’Toole Jr. Twelve jurors and six alternates are to be selected. His face remained impassive throughout the proceedings; it was impossible to detect in his bearing either remorse or its absence. When called upon to stand up, he did so slowly and awkwardly.
The judge said the trial will begin on 26 January and will last three to four months. Tsarnaev faces 30 federal charges including “conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death”. Crucially, 17 of those carry a potential death sentence.
The courthouse was under tight security Monday, with dozens of police officers inside and outside the building. One bombing victim, Karen Brassard, was outside the jury room waiting to observe jury selection. There were no Tsarnaev supporters outside the courthouse as there have been during pretrial hearings. Monday marked the beginning of perhaps the most critical part of the entire trial – the selection of the jury which will hear the case.
The jury will decide whether Tsarnaev planned and carried out the twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 near the finish line of the race on 15 April, 2013. Over the course of the next three days, in groups of 200-250 taken from a pool of 3,000, potential jurors will be addressed by the judge, and asked to fill out a questionnaire which will be reviewed both by the prosecution and the defence.
If they find him guilty, they also will decide whether he should be put to death. Survivors and first responders are among those expected to testify. From this unusually large pool, a 12-person jury and six alternates will be selected.
Heather Abbott, of Newport, Rhode Island, who lost her left leg below the knee in the attacks, said her biggest question may be an unanswerable one: “Why?” The contents of the questionnaire were closed to the press, but according to court documents it contained around 100 questions designed to “determine the extent to which potential jurors have been affected in ways in which the defendant is concerned”.
“I don’t know whether I’ll ever get any answer to that question, but I guess I want to understand what the thought process was,” said Abbott, who plans to attend some of the proceedings. “Why he would want to do this to people ... it’s really hard to understand.” Those jurors who are not whittled down by the questionnaire stage will next go through a process of “voir dire”, in which they take oral questions from the attorneys.
The trial, which likely will last several months, is perhaps the most scrutinized case of its kind since Timothy McVeigh was convicted and executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Addressing the first batch of potential jurors, in a speech that he is scheduled to give at least five more times in the next three days, Judge George O’Toole said that the jury’s duty was “to serve fairly and impartially”.
Tsarnaev’s lawyers tried for months to get the trial moved, arguing the Boston jury pool was tainted because of the number of locals with connections to the race. They drew parallels to the McVeigh case, which was moved to Denver for similar reasons. But US District Judge George O’Toole Jr, who is presiding over the case, refused. This, he said, “means to base a decision on what you hear in court, not on any possible bias, prejudice, or anything you have seen, heard or read outside the courtroom – including anything you … have learned in the media”.
Jury selection is expected to be a lengthy process because of extensive media coverage and the thousands of runners, spectators and others in the area affected by the bombings. The process also could be slowed if potential jurors express objections to the death penalty. He instructed the jurors not to read, watch or listen to any reports on this case in the news, or do any online research.
Prosecutors say 21-year-old Dzhokhar and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev – ethnic Chechens who had lived in the United States for about a decade – carried out the bombings as retaliation for US actions in Muslim countries. Tamerlan, 26, died after a firefight with police several days after the bombings. The defence has raised the question of whether it is possible for Tsarnaev to receive a fair trial in Boston, as the scale of the attack and its local impact means that it may be next to impossible to find a truly impartial jury – the phrase they used in their motion was “nearly universal local victimisation”. But repeated requests to move the trial to federal courts in other states have been denied.
The defense is expected to argue that Dzhokhar had a difficult childhood and was heavily influenced by his elder brother, who authorities believe became radicalized in the last few years of his life, including during a six-month trip to Dagestan and Chechnya in 2012. Another key issue in jury selection is that of the death penalty. The state of Massachusetts has not had capital punishment since 1982, when a court declared it unconstitutional. A Boston Globe poll in September 2013 found that residents favoured life imprisonment over execution for Tsarnaev, 57% to 33%.
Part of the selection process will involve striking potential jurors who profess strong feelings about the death penalty.
“The judge will seek to eliminate those who are categorically opposed to the death penalty in all cases and those who believe that if there’s a conviction for capital murder, they must impose the death penalty,” Professor Ira Robbins of American University’s Washington College of Law told NBC News.
If Tsarnaev is found guilty on any of the capital charges, a secondary phase using the same jury will be triggered, in which the jury – not the judge – will decide whether to sentence Tsarnaev to death. This decision must be unanimous; if the jury cannot agree, the judge will step in to impose a sentence of life without parole.
Judge O’Toole said that once the jury selection process is complete, the trial will begin “on or around” 26 January and go on for “three or four months”.