A federal appeals on Thursday ordered the judge who oversaw the Boston Marathon bomber's trial to investigate the defense's claims of bias among the penalty-phase jurors who determined Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence, reports the Associated Press. If the judge finds that either juror should have been disqualified, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence could be vacated, leading to a new penalty phase hearing, to determine whether he should be executed or imprisoned for life.
Oral arguments before the three-judge 1st Circuit panel more than a year ago focused on two jurors that Tsarnaev’s lawyers say were dishonest during jury selection. One juror said she had not commented about the case online, but she had retweeted a post calling Tsarnaev a “piece of garbage.” Another juror said none of his Facebook friends had commented on the trial, though one had urged him to “play the part” so he could get on the jury. Tsarnaev’s lawyers raised those concerns during jury selection, but contend that the judge chose not to look into them further.