Boston Marathon Bomber’s Death Sentence Vacated on Appeal

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his brother Tamerlan killed four people and injured hundreds more in the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon and their attempt to flee, had his death sentence vacated on appeal.

Despite “a diligent effort,” the trial judge failed to properly assess whether the jurors in Tsarnaev’s trail were biased by pretrial publicity surrounding the high-profile case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said in a lengthy opinion. The court also reversed three of Tsarnaev’s convictions for carrying a firearm during crimes of violence.

The district court must empanel a new jury ...