Feds To Ask Supreme Court To Hear Tsarnaev Death Penalty Reversal

Federal prosecutors plan to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review a July ruling that threw out the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, according to court records.

The Justice Department said by Dec. 20 it will request the high court take a look at the decision handed down by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

That court said Tsarnaev’s sentence should be considered anew, ordering a new penalty-phase trial and tossing his death sentence when it ruled the jurors were not properly vetted for being exposed to publicity around the case.

"The Court vacated Tsarnaev’s death sentences based on the district court’s failure to ask prospective jurors about the content of the media coverage they had seen and heard about the case," the filing said. "The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require trial courts to question potential jurors ‘about the specific contents of the news reports to which they had been exposed.'"

Tsarnaev, 27, is at a federal supermax prison in Florence, CO. In 2015, he was convicted of 30 terrorism counts stemming from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and the subsequent killing of an MIT police officer.