Today, Monday, January 5, begins the anxiously-anticipated start of the trial of Dzokhar Tsarnaev. The trial is meant to determine whether Tsarnaev was one of those responsible for the double-bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon on April 15, and subsequent shooting death of 26-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology security guard Sean Collier.
The two pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and maimed many.
Eight-year-old Martin Richard was killed by the explosions, as were 29-year-old Krystal Campbell and 23-year old graduate student Lingzi Liu.
The first stage of the trial is the jury selection. Because of the widespread news coverage of the tragedy and the heinous nature of the crime, the names of 1200 people are on the list in an effort to find 12 jurors and six alternates. The task is expected to take as long as a month. The active trial phase is tentatively scheduled to begin on January 26 and will likely last three to four months.
Tsarnaev was charged with 30 separate criminal counts, many of which can carry the death penalty. Potential jurors have to be both able to vote for the death penalty if warranted, but still be capable of withholding such a vote if the evidence is not sufficient.
The trial is taking place in the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston. Defense attorneys tried desperately to change the location of the trial, but that request was denied. The presiding judge is U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr.