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The Supreme Court will consider reinstating Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence

Kelly McLaughlin   

The Supreme Court will consider reinstating Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence
LifeInternational1 min read
  • The Supreme Court will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
  • Tsarnaev's death sentence was overturned last year by a lower court.
  • The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling and reinstate the death penalty.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after it was vacated by a lower court last year.

Tsarnaev was convicted of planting pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon with his brother, which killed three people and injured hundreds of others.

He was sentenced to death in 2015, but Tsarnaev's death sentence was overturned last July by a three-judge panel from the 1st US Circuit of Appeals, who ruled that there were concerns over errors at his trial, according to USA Today.

"Make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution," last year's appeals court ruling said, using Tsarnaev's first name to distinguish him from his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with police days after the 2013 bombing.

The Justice Department under Donald Trump in October urged the Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty in Tsarnaev's case, saying it was "one of the most important terrorism prosecutions in our nation's history."

The Supreme Court opted to pick up the case on Monday, according to NBC News.

While considering the case, the Supreme Court will review the lower court's ruling, which cited concerns in Tsarnaev's trial including jurors' exposure to media, and claims that a judge improperly blocked evidence.

Staff from the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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