MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have asked to move their client’s trial from Boston to Washington, D.C. due to the partial media coverage of the Boston bombing case in which he is accused, The Boston Globe reported.
“The [Boston] Globe’s coverage [of the Tsarnaev’s case] was marked by an overload of inflammatory themes, words, phrases and passages,” Edward J.Bronson, professor emeritus at California State University, Chico, said in a sworn declaration submitted by Tsarnaev’s lawyers in a filing in federal court in Boston.
According to Bronson, in The Boston Globe’s publications, the words “terror” and “terrorist” were used to describe Tsarnaev more than 1,400 times.
According to the media reports, Tsarnaev’s attorney Judy Clarke first asked to move her client’s trial out of Boston in June. Her team has then conducted several polls in Boston, Springfield, New York and Washington to find out where the public is less biased against Tsarnaev.
The decision on whether to comply with the request and move the trial, has not been made by US District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr.
The 21-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is suspected of perpetrating the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, 2013. The tragedy claimed 3 lives and left more than 260 people injured. Tsarnaev was arrested on April 19, 2013, and pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts against him on his first public court appearance on July 10, 2013.
