Boston
Marathon bomber files motion seeking new trial
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[July 07, 2015]
(Reuters) - Boston Marathon bomber
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who has been sentenced to death, filed a motion in
federal court on Monday seeking a new trial, according to court records.
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The preliminary motion for a new trial cited a lack of evidence in
his trial this spring, according to documents filed in federal court
in Massachusetts.
Tsarnaev was convicted in April of killing three people and injuring
264 in the bombing near the finish line of the world-renowned Boston
Marathon in 2013, as well as fatally shooting a police officer three
days later.
The same jury voted for execution by injection in May.
At his formal sentencing on June 24, the 21-year-old ethnic Chechen
apologized and admitted he and his now-dead older brother carried
out the attack.
Attorneys for the convicted bomber described the motion as a
"placeholder" and said they would spell out reasons for seeking a
new trial in additional filings by Aug. 17.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/07/images/ads/current/ccaonline_sda050208.png) Legal maneuvering over Tsarnaev's fate could play out for years.
Just three of the 74 people sentenced to death in the United States
for federal crimes since 1998 have been executed.
Three people died in the bombing: Martin Richard, 8, Chinese
exchange student Lingzi Lu, 26, and restaurant manager Krystle
Campbell, 29.
Three days later, Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan,
shot dead Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean
Collier, 26.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a gunfight with police that ended
when Dzhokhar ran him over with a car.
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At trial, prosecutors described the brothers as adherents of al
Qaeda's militant Islamist ideology who wanted to "punish America"
with the attack on the marathon.
Tsarnaev's attorneys admitted their client had played a role in the
attack but tried to portray him as the junior partner in a scheme
hatched and driven by his older brother, who was killed in a
shootout with police a few days after the bombing.
(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by
Barbara Goldberg and Bill Trott)
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