Court reinstates Boston Marathon bomber death sentence

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received a fair trial and can face the death penalty, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision on Friday. The ruling overturns the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2020 that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence about the influence of Tsarnaev’s older brother and did not sufficiently question jurors about their news consumption. The six conservative justices voted to reinstate the death penalty. Tsarnaev, now 28, was convicted of 30 charges, most of which the appeals court upheld, for his role in the 2013 bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon that left three people dead.

What happens next? Even though his administration defended Tsarnaev’s death sentence, President Joe Biden has said he opposes the practice. The Justice Department stopped executions last summer over concerns the drugs used cause intense pain, so it’s unlikely Tsarnaev will be executed anytime soon.

Dig deeper: Listen to Jenny Rough’s report on the Legal Docket segment of The World and Everything in It podcast about the debate over Tsarnaev’s sentence.