Supreme Court could reinstate death penalty for Boston bomber

Last summer, the Justice Department appealed after a lower court threw out the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev over concerns about jury bias. The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear arguments for reinstating the penalty this fall. Police captured Tsarnaev, now 27, after he and his older brother set off two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013. The attack killed three people and injured hundreds of others. A court convicted Tsarnaev of 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Will the Biden administration intervene? Since taking office, President Joe Biden has changed the federal government’s position in several court cases the Trump administration initiated. But Biden has not indicated he will do so in this case, despite previously expressing opposition to the federal death penalty. The Obama administration initially pursued the death penalty for Tsarnaev.

Dig Deeper: Read Andrew Branch’s report for WORLD Digital on the Christian runner who won the Boston Marathon the year after the bombing.