Last July, a federal appeals court said that Tsarnaev would remain in prison for the rest of his life for “unspeakably brutal acts”, but that he should receive a new trial in the penalty phase, citing jury selection issues and a failure in proper assessment judges for prejudice.
The appeals court overturned the death penalty with instructions to carry out a retrial of the sentence, but warned: “make no mistake” Tsarnaev “will spend the remaining days in prison”
Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015 of the deaths of Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu in the marathon and police officer Sean Collier, among other charges. He is being held in a federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
The Supreme Court is likely to hear the case later this year.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the bombs “caused devastating injuries that left the street with a devastated look of a combat zone” with “blood and body parts everywhere, scattered among BB’s, nails, remains of metal and glass fragments. ”
The government’s petition methodically described the events that took place on the day of the bombing and is deeply critical of the opinion of the appeals court that overturned the sentence in what the government said was one of “the most important terrorism processes in the history of our country”.
Acting then attorney general Jeff Wall urged judges to take the case in this term, arguing that “the victims, the prospective jurors, the district court, the government and the nation” should not have to bear the burden associated with need to reinstate the capital sentence.
It is not clear whether, even if Tsarnaev’s death penalty was reinstated, he would actually be sentenced to death, given the Biden government’s opposition to the federal death penalty.
However, while the Trump administration has appealed to the Supreme Court, there is no indication that the Biden Department of Justice is changing its legal position in the case, said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the Law School. from the University of Texas.
“It may be that the legal question, about how carefully district courts in capital punishment cases have to select potential jurors, is one that the current Department of Justice wants judges to clarify, even if it has no intention of executing a possible death sentence on the road, “said Vladeck.
This story has been updated with details of the case.
CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.