Chris Laudani, a bartender at the Back Bay Social Club, pauses after shoveling snow from the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street, in Boston, during a winter storm that slammed eastern Massachusetts with as much as 2 feet of snow.(Photo: Philip L. Hillman, AP)
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev renewed their plea Friday to change the venue of his trial, citing a photograph of a man cleaning snow off the race finish line.
In a court filing, the lawyers argued THAT bias among jurors and local prejudice fueled by the media mean Tsarnaev can't get a fair trial in Boston.
Tsarnaev, now 21, is charged in a 30-count indictment that alleges he conspired with his older brother, Tamerlan, 26, to build and detonate two pressure-cooker bombs near the crowded finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. He has pleaded not guilty and faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
The Boston area's ties from the bombing have created "viscera" and "lingering" biases, the lawyers said. Questioning potential jurors has "revealed still more evidence of the bias — explicit and implicit, conscious and unconscious — flowing from jurors' powerful emotional connections to the people, places and events of the Boston Marathon bombing."
USA TODAY
Man shovels Boston Marathon finish line, sparks Internet mystery
The motion includes and mentions a photo that went viral depicting a person who shoveled the finish line of the marathon during this week's blizzard.
"It is unrealistic to expect that even the most sincere and scrupulous jurors can shield themselves from the biases and connections that inundate the communities in which they, themselves, live," the motion for a change of venue states.
Lawyers also included a photo of one of
Time magazine's front pages featuring a police officer carrying a crying young boy with blood splattered on his head.
The explosion of the two bombs near the finish line was the largest act of terrorism in Boston's history. The attack, on April 15, 2013, left three people dead, injured more than 260 and led to at least 16 people having limbs amputated.
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