Attorneys will stand before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday and argue the fate of one of the most infamous members of federal death row: Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
While the case could have legal implications for future high-profile capital punishment trials, it also highlights a rift between Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty and his Justice Department’s request that the Supreme Court reinstate Tsarnaev’s death sentence.
Tsarnaev was sentenced to death six years ago for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three and injured hundreds. In 2020, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his death sentences, citing procedural failings during his trial (but kept in place his numerous life sentences). The Justice Department (DOJ) under President Donald Trump appealed in October of 2020, and then reaffirmed that position in June 2021 under Biden. The Supreme Court will now determine if Tsarnaev’s death sentences should be reinstated.
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The case has brought renewed attention to the Biden Administration’s inconsistent positions on the death penalty. The first sitting President to oppose capital punishment, Biden pledged on the campaign trail to work to pass legislation eliminating the federal death penalty and to incentivize states to do the same. This year, he has spoken to lawmakers who have introduced legislation to abolish the practice, and in July his Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a temporary moratorium on all federal executions that is still in place.
Yet Garland has not issued a formal policy banning federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, and in June, the Justice Department submitted filings to the Supreme Court asking for Tsarnaev’s death sentence to be reinstated. This means that while the federal government isn’t currently carrying out executions because of Garland’s moratorium, they are defending death sentences upon appeal and…
Source : time
