MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - A judge has rescheduled the trial of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, granting a two-month delay, but has refused to move it from Boston to Washington DC, the Associated Press reported early on Thursday.
Judge George O'Toole has ruled that the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is suspected of having carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings with his brother, is now scheduled for January 5, 2015 instead of November 3, following a request from his lawyers.
This means a two-month delay instead of the longer period asked for by the defense team. The lawyers wanted the trial to be postponed until at least September 2015, saying “they have not had time to prepare for a November trial, and had been given less time than was granted in many other federal death penalty cases”.
As for the second request filed by the defenders, the judge didn’t see any reason “to assume in advance that a fair jury cannot be selected in Massachusetts”.
The lawyers had asked that the trial be moved to Washington, D.C., citing extensive media coverage in Boston and expert evaluations of local public sentiment.
Three people were killed and over 260 were wounded after two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 last year.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, and his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, both ethnic Chechens, were identified as suspects in the blasts.
Tamerlan was killed during an ensuing 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. During his first public court appearance on July 10, 2013, the suspect pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts.
