U.S. Supreme Court reinstates death sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court released a 44-page ruling whereby they reinstated the death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Judge Clarence Thomas of Georgia wrote the majority opinion.

“On April 15, 2013, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted and detonated two homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding hundreds,” said the ruling.

“Three days later, as investigators began to close in, the brothers fled. In the process, they murdered a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer, carjacked a graduate student, and fought a street battle with police during which Dzhokhar inadvertently ran over and killed Tamerlan. Dzhokhar eventually abandoned the vehicle and hid in a covered boat being stored in a nearby backyard. He was arrested the following day.”

Dzhokhar was subsequently indicted for 30 crimes, including 17 capital offenses.

In 2020 the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev had been influenced by his older brother, Tamerlan, and was, therefore, less responsible for the carnage. The death sentence was then thrown out.

The justices were in agreement with the Biden Administration when they voted by a 6-3 margin that the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had made the wrong decision, an action which reinstated Tsarnaev’s death sentence.