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 The process started last week when 1,350 people reported to U.S.
District Court in Boston over three days to fill out questionnaires
on topics that likely included their connection to the attack, which
killed three people and injured more than 260, as well as their
views on the death penalty.
Tsarnaev, 21, faces the threat of execution if convicted of carrying
out the largest mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. He is
also charged with shooting dead a police officer three days after
the April 15, 2013, bombing.
U.S. District Judge George O'Toole on Thursday will begin calling in
potential jurors in groups of 20 at a time for questioning. He needs
to whittle the field down to a panel of 12 jurors and six
alternates.
 Candidates need not be unaware of the attacks to be eligible to
serve, O'Toole has said, though they must be able to keep an open
mind on whether Tsarnaev is guilty or innocent until they have heard
the evidence. If they find him guilty, they must be willing to at
least consider voting for execution.
Lawyers for Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty, this week asked
O'Toole to pause jury selection due to last week's attacks in Paris
by Islamist gunmen in which 17 people were killed over three days,
saying parallels between that incident and the bombing would taint
the jury pool.
Tsarnaev left a note during a manhunt for him suggesting the attack
was intended as an act of retribution for U.S. military engagement
in Muslim countries, prosecutors said.
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O'Toole rejected the defense request saying that reviewing the
questionnaires filled out by potential jurors "confirmed, rather
than undermined" his opinion that he would be able to seat an
impartial jury.
The size of the pool of potential jurors called in reflected the
large number of Boston-area residents with a personal connection to
the incident. Thousands were crowded around the race finish line
when the bombs went off, and hundreds of thousands in the Boston
area were ordered to remain in their homes four days later during
the manhunt.
The judge and defense attorneys will likely want to avoid jurors
with a direct connection to the attack.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eric Beech)
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