In more than 90 minutes of arguments, the court's six conservative justices seemed likely to embrace the Biden administration's argument that a federal appeals court mistakenly threw out Tsarnaev's death sentence for his role in the bombing that killed three people near the finish line of the marathon in 2013.
The court's three liberal justices appeared more favourable to Tsarnaev. If the appellate ruling were affirmed, Tsarnaev would have to face a new sentencing trial if the administration decided to continue pressing for a death sentence. The main focus was on evidence that implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a triple killing in the Boston suburb of Waltham on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But Justice Brett Kavanaugh was among several conservative justices who suggested the judge had good reason to keep the account of the Waltham killings from the jury because both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Ibragim Todashev, who implicated him, were dead by the time of the trial."We don't know what happened. Todashev had all the motive in the world to point the finger at the dead guy," Judge Kavanaugh said.
In a bizarre twist, while Todashev was being questioned in Florida, he was shot dead after authorities say he attacked the agents. The agent who killed Todashev was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
Stop wasting taxpayer dollars.
Death sentence is small punishment for the terrorists .
Good stuff.
The world needs to send a strong message. These animals planned the slaughter of innocent people, they should be sentenced to the same suffering they caused their victims.