MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - Lawyers of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who stands accused of the bombings in Boston, have filed a motion to dismiss the indictment due to irregularities in the selection of grand juries, the Boston Globe reported.
Defense attorneys are concerned over the manner in which the grand juries were selected in 2011 and 2013. For instance, qualified juries aged 70 years and older often left the college on request.
"Being over age 70, like race, sex, and national origin, is an immutable characteristic – one cannot get younger – and exclusion on the basis of such a characteristic gives rise to the appearance of unfairness," the lawyers said. They also noted insufficient number of African-Americans in the pool of potential jurors.
In addition, about 5 percent of 400 summonses sent to form a pool of potential jurors trying Tsarnaev’s case have been returned by the postal service as undeliverable. There were no draws from a supplemental group to fill their places, the Boston Globe cited the lawyers as saying.
Three people were killed and over 260 wounded after two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 last year. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, and his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens, were identified as suspects in the blasts. Tamerlan was killed during the shootout and Dzhokhar was arrested as part of a special operation on April 19. Dzhokhar faces 30 charges, half of which are punishable by death. On his first public court appearance on July 10, 2013, the suspect pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts.
