The trial of the accused Boston Marathon Bomber began Monday after attorneys failed to come to a plea agreement and Federal judges ruled the trial should go on in Boston.
During the first few days of the week, a pool of 1,200 potential jurors from around Eastern Massachusetts will head to the Boston Federal Court to take part in the jury selection process, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The jurors will consider the fate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon that killed three. He and his older brother Tamerlan also are suspects in the killing of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. They were stopped in Watertown after a shootout with Watertown Police and law enforcement from other departments on April 19, 2013. Dzhokhar surrendered after being found in a boat in the backyard of a home on Franklin Street on the evening of April 19.
The trial will move forward after Federal prosecutors and Tsarnaev’s attorneys failed to come to a plea agreement, according to a CNN piece.
Defense attorneys tried to move the trial out of Massachusetts, arguing that Tsarnaev could not get a fair trial in the area because of the heavy media coverage of the Marathon Bombing, the hunt for the suspects and capture of the suspect.
Last Friday, Federal Judge George O’Toole denied the request to move the trial. On Saturday, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the defense appeal should be denied and the trial should go ahead as scheduled, according to an Associated Press article.