High court reimposes Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence

Supreme Court votes 6-3 to reinstate Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence after rejecting claims jury should have been told of accomplice brother’s influence on him

  • The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to reimpose the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 28, on Friday
  • Voting along conservative-liberal lines, the court said a federal appeals court  was wrong to throw out the death sentence for Tsarnaev
  • The appeals court had ruled that it was improper to exclude evidence on how deeply influence Tsarnaev was by his older brother, Tamerlan
  • The defense described Tamerlan, who died in  a shootout with police following the attack, as the real mastermind behind the bombing 

Supreme Court justices have voted 6-3 to reinstate the surviving Boston Marathon bomber’s death sentence, after tossing out an earlier court’s ruling that jurors should have been informed of his accomplice brother’s influence.  

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 28, was ordered back on to death row by Friday’s ruling, when a majority of justices said they agreed with the Biden administration’s call to execute Tsarnaev over the April 2013 terror attack that killed three and maimed 255 others.   

‘Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes,’ Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, with conservatives ultimately voting to reinstate, with liberal justices coming out against. ‘The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one.’ 

The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled in 2020 that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev was deeply influenced by his older brother, Tamerlan, and was somehow less responsible for the carnage. Tamerlan was shot dead by cops in the Boston suburb of Watertown four days after the terror attack.

The appeals court also faulted the judge for not sufficiently questioning jurors about their exposure to extensive news coverage of the bombing, but the Supreme Court has now ruled that this was a moot point. 

The Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 28, who is on death row at Colorado’s supermax prison

The justices, voting along conservative-liberal lines on Friday, rule that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the sentence of death a jury imposed on Tsarnaev for his role in the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombing

On April 15, 2013, Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, set off bombs at the finish line of the marathon race, killing three and injuring more than 260 people

Tamerlan (left) died in a shootout with police after he killed MIT officer Sean Collier. Tsarnaev’s lawyers claim the jury did not hear how easily the younger brother was influenced by Tamerlan, who they said was the true mastermind of the attack

Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, writing a dissent that was joined by two of his colleagues, noted that when ‘death is at stake…particular judicial care’ is required.

‘In my view, the Court of Appeals acted lawfully in holding that the District Court should have allowed Dzhokhar to introduce this evidence,’ Breyer wrote.

Daniel Habib, a lawyer for Tsarnaev, declined to comment about the ruling. Judy Clarke, another lawyer representing Tsarnaev, did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.  

Tsarnaev was found guilty in 2015 for the deaths of Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, of Boston. 

The attack left more than 260 people injured and his older brother, Tamerlan, also shot and killed MIT police officer Sean Collier. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with the police following the bombing. 

No federal inmates were executed for 17 years before Donald Trump oversaw 13 executions in the last six months of his term. 



Tsarnaev was found guilty in 2015 for the deaths of (L-R): 8-year-old Martin Richard, of Boston;  Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; and Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts

The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to rule on the case and said a new sentencing would further traumatize the Boston community struck by the attack

Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, had since imposed a moratorium on federal executions, with the president himself voicing personal concerns about capital punishment in the country. 

Despite his hesitations, the administration urged the Supreme Court to rule on the matter and argued that holding a new sentencing would further traumatize the Boston community by forcing victims to once again recount the horrors of that day. 

Tsarnaev is set to remain on death row at Colorado’s infamous Florence ADX supermax prison, widely regarded as the world’s most secure correctional facility.   

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