(Bloomberg) -- Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lost a final bid to move his trial to another city less than a week before a jury begins hearing the terrorism case.
The 21-year-old former college student has lost repeated requests to move the trial to New York or Washington. His lawyers say jury selection over the past month has only bolstered their long-standing claim that the pool of potential jurors had made up their minds about Tsarnaev without hearing any evidence.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston ruled Tsarnaev didn’t show that a trial in Massachusetts would be unfair.
“Any high-profile case will receive significant media attention,” the court’s majority said in Friday’s ruling. “It is no surprise that people in general, and especially the well-informed, will be aware of it.”
Tsarnaev faces a possible death sentence if jurors convict him of using weapons of mass destruction to kill three people and wound 260 near the race’s finish line on April 15, 2013. Opening statements in the trial are set for Wednesday in Boston federal court.
Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Russian republic of Dagestan, is also accused of killing a university police officer in the days after the bombing. He’s linked to the crime through surveillance footage of the race and physical evidence taken from his dorm room, authorities have said.
U.S. Circuit Judge Juan Torruella, who disagreed with the appellate court’s majority in the 2-1 ruling, said he couldn’t imagine a case in which a change of venue was needed more.
“Almost the entire pool of potential jurors has been compromised by the Boston Marathon bombings in one respect or another,” said Torruella, who was first nominated to the appeals court by Republican President Ronald Reagan. “Even though potential jurors may have the best of intentions, I believe it is impossible to empanel a jury in this jurisdiction that is impartial, let alone indifferent.”
Aside from entering a plea of not guilty, Tsarnaev hasn’t hinted at evidence that may exonerate him. His lawyers have signaled in court papers that they will try to save him from the death penalty by pinning most of the blame on his older brother, Tamerlan, who died in a shootout with police.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr., who is overseeing the trial, has spent a month with prosecutors and lawyers to select 12 qualified jurors and six alternates from a group of more than 1,300. The process has included hundreds of interviews under oath, during which defense lawyers sought to expose bias.
Prosecutors claim Tsarnaev, a Muslim and ethnic Chechen, was inspired by al-Qaeda and motivated by the killing of Muslim civilians in U.S. military actions, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The decision to seek death was made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and backed by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston. Ortiz last year said Tsarnaev’s intentional involvement in the “heinous” attack, his lack of remorse and his betrayal of the U.S. justified a death sentence.
The bombing killed Krystle Marie Campbell, 29; Lu Lingzi, 23; and Martin Richard, 8. Many others had their limbs blown off in the street. It was the first deadly terrorist explosion in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001.
The case is U.S. v. Tsarnaev, 13-cr-10200, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston). The appeal is In Re: Tsarnaev, 15-1170, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Boston).
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Dunn at adunn8@bloomberg.net Michael Hytha, David E. Rovella
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