Can a terror suspect largely already convicted in the court of public opinion get a fair trial anywhere in the United States?
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his attorneys are certainly going to try.
The lawyers of the Boston Marathon Bombing suspect have requested to move his upcoming trial from Boston. They believe that Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, would be an ideal location.
According to a motion filed in the U.S. District court on Wednesday, his legal representatives said that Boston residents were highly prejudiced against Tsarnaev based on survey results.
Potential jurors from various locations were asked a number of questions in order to determine their level of preexisting bias.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Asks Trial To Be Moved Out Of Massachusetts http://t.co/AZEmockHWZ pic.twitter.com/XEeHusCZdm
— RyanMachara (@RyanMachara) June 18, 2014
Not too surprisingly, Boston citizens were found to have the greatest level of conviction that Tsarnaev is guilty of the Boston bombings.
His attorneys pointed out that the week long search, especially the final day when residents were forced to hide indoors, created a strong, negative bias in addition to a great deal of “trauma”.
Such factors will likely make it nearly impossible to select a pool of jurors that will not be emotionally compromised.
Other populations that were surveyed included Springfield and New York City. Bizarrely enough, the nation’s capital is a location that Tsarnaev’s public defenders believe will grant him the fairest possible trial under the circumstances.
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense lawyers consider #SpringfieldMA as possible trial venue. http://t.co/LRwfUl1GgT
— MassLive Boston (@MassLiveBoston) June 19, 2014
Tsarnaev and his brother are accused of planting a pair of bombs that exploded during the March 2013 Boston Marathon. Though his brother was killed following a shootout, Tsarnaev recovered from his wounds and will face 30 federal charges.
He has pled not guilty. The trial is expected to begin in November of this year.
A judge has already ruled that his public defenders cannot have additional time to file the motion to move the trial away from Boston. On Friday, Judge George O’Toole said that he’d already pushed back the filing deadline from February to June.
The judge felt the defense had adequate time to file the motion based on the information they’d already accumulated.
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