In April 2013, Jochar Zarnajew detonated self-made explosive devices in the finish area of the Boston Marathon. Three people are killed and hundreds injured. A jury sentenced the “Boston bomber” to death. However, he does not have to die for his cruel deed.
A US Court of Appeals overturned the death sentence against the “Boston bomber” Jochar Zarnajew. As can be seen from court records, the judges overturned the 2015 decision and ordered that the sentence be revised. The court made it clear that Zarnayev still expected at least life imprisonment: “Jochar will spend his remaining days in prison. The only question is whether he will die from execution.”
The reason for the decision is the view of the lawyers that the court did not ensure in the trial that the jury was actually unbiased about Zarnayev. “The district court was unable to identify prejudice or bias by refusing to ask potential jurors content-specific questions about what they had read and heard about the case.” One of the jury members is said to have called Zarnayev on Twitter as “scum”, as the convict’s lawyer said.
The 27-year-old Zarnajew was sentenced to death in mid-May 2015. The jury found the young man guilty of detonating two self-made explosive devices together with his brother Tamerlan, who was later killed, in the finish area of the Boston Marathon in April 2013. Three people were killed in the most serious terrorist attack in the United States since September 11, 2001, and several of the 264 injured lost arms or legs.
Zarnajew had confessed to the crime and is now in a maximum security prison in the US state of Colorado.
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