Jurors in Boston bombing trial to hear FBI evidence

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[March 11, 2015]  BOSTON (Reuters) - Jurors in the trial of Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will hear testimony on Wednesday morning from an FBI agent who led the agency's efforts to recover evidence from the debris-strewn blast sites.

FBI Special Agent Sarah DeLair arrived hours after explosions ripped through the race's crowded finished line April 15, 2013, she testified on Tuesday. She took pictures of the dead and coordinated efforts to recover "everything from human remains to bomb components to parts of backpacks," she said.

Prosecutors will resume questioning her on Wednesday, the fifth day of the high-profile trial.

Tsarnaev, 21, is accused of killing three people and injuring 264 with a pair of homemade bombs, as well as fatally shooting a police officer three days later as he and his brother tried to flee the city.

His attorneys opened the trial by admitting he committed the crimes of which he is accused, but are seeking to spare him the death penalty by demonstrating he was following the lead of his older brother Tamerlan, who died four days after the bombing after a gunbattle with police.

Federal prosecutors contend Tsarnaev, who emigrated with his family from Chechnya, was driven by an extremist view of Islam and a desire to strike back at the United States in revenge for military campaigns in Muslim-dominated countries.

On Tuesday, jurors were presented with photographs of the blood-stained message that prosecutors say Tsarnaev wrote inside the hull of a boat in which he was hiding in Watertown, outside Boston, moments before his violent capture.

The note accuses the United States government of killing Muslims and says "I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished". It adds "I don't like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said (...) it is allowed." Words were missing from the note due to bullet holes.

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Other FBI agents on Tuesday described how some 3,000 pieces of evidence, including shrapnel and body parts, were retrieved from the blast sites near the marathon finish line, some on surrounding rooftops as high as four stories.

Jurors were also presented with Tsarnaev's Twitter posts, which ranged from jokes about girls, food, and homework, to musings about Islam and a reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by David Gregorio)

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