In 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's actions resulted in the death of three people and injured hundreds of others - now his laywers are arguing for a new trial and a new sentencing procedure, according to ABC News. A judge was asked on Tuesday to hold a new trial for the Boston bomber, with Tsarnaev's lawyers arguing that a new Supreme Court ruling calls half of the counts against him into question, according to ABC.
The high court recently found a law surrounding sentences for crimes committed while carrying a gun to be overly broad, and it is this decision that leads the defense to claim 15 of the 30 criminal counts facing Tsarnaev are affected, according to Reuters.
"It's really impossible to unpack what weight that (ruling) might have had on the jury's deliberations, in their weighting of aggravating and mitigating factors," defense attorney William Fick said as reported by Reuters, adding that "it requires a redo of the entire sentencing proceeding."
Federal prosecutors have questioned whether the argument is truly relevant to the case, given that the Boston Marathon bombing killed three people and injured over 260 others. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb doubts whether the charges would be affected even without reference to Tsarnaev and his brother carrying handguns, saying that "there is absolutely no reason to believe... the result would have been any different," reported by Yahoo News.
Tsarnaev's brother Tamerlan died in a shootout with police three days after the bombing, but lawyers claim that he was the mastermind behind the bombings and that Dzhokhar does not deserve the death penalty, according to WCVB.
Tsarnaev did not attend the hearing, which was held on Tuesday, having been last seen in public on the day of his sentencing on June 24. He was reported as saying then that he was "sorry for the lives I have taken", according to Yahoo News.
Judge George O'Toole Jr. has not immediately make a ruling on the case.
