DOJ asks Supreme Court to reinstate death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Source: ABC News
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Tsarnaev was sentenced to death in May 2015 for the April 15, 2013, bombing that killed three.
However, a federal appeals court overturned the death sentencing last summer, ruling the trial judge failed to adequately question prospective jurors about if they had been biased by hearing about the case before the trial started.
The federal appeals court "improperly vacated the capital sentences recommended by the jury in one of the most important terrorism prosecutions in our Nation's history," the Justice Department argued Tuesday, claiming that a prospective juror's prior exposure to a case doesn't mean they can't be impartial.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/doj-asks-supreme-court-reinstate-death-sentence-boston/story?id=78289381
marble falls
(57,080 posts)50 Shades Of Blue
(9,983 posts)Jilly_in_VA
(9,966 posts)We are now one of the few countries in the world with a federal death penalty. We should not be.
PSPS
(13,593 posts)The president could issue a moratorium or congress could end the death penalty (for federal crimes)
Short of that, DOJ is supposed to defend existing law.
Socal31
(2,484 posts)I don't think that is what we actually want. I'd prefer my local MMJ collective NOT be thrown in federal prison for trafficking.
former9thward
(31,987 posts)There is no law where if convicted there is a mandatory death penalty. With crimes that can carry a potential death penalty it is a judgment call by the prosecution whether to ask for it. In this case an appeals court reversed the judge's ruling. It is completely up to the DOJ in their judgment whether to accept that or appeal it. They have chosen to appeal it. It is on them.
and you know it's not true
George II
(67,782 posts)Once Biden puts out all the other fires he was left less than 5 months ago, I'm sure he'll commute the sentences of all who are on death row to life in prison. In the meantime, I would almost guarantee that if any execution dates are established (I seriously doubt that) he'll commute them as they come up.
I saw this story earlier on Twitter, and unfortunately some (not you Polybius) are using this as a negative toward Biden. I'm surprised this wasn't the lead story on Politico or The Hill, the usual anti-Democratic sites.
Although I'm 110% against the death penalty, I'm not worried about this - it'll be resolved in due time without any additional Federal executions.
former9thward
(31,987 posts)The Obama/Biden administration asked for the death penalty originally.
Tom Yossarian Joad
(19,228 posts)AZLD4Candidate
(5,688 posts)My campaign position on capital punishment.
Life in prison, you lose time, but if it's overturned, you still have your life to live.
Capital punishment, if it is proven the state was wrong, you're still dead and the state cannot resurrect you.
azureblue
(2,146 posts)like if you get stopped with a pile of cash, the cops take it because they say it's for drugs. Never mind that you could be on you way to buy a car in cash or for down payment on a house. or eminent domain.Wake up - the government takes all the time, and refuses to give back even when proven to be wrong.
My take on the federal death penalty is yes, this is a good time to reinstate it, because we have several leaders and citizens who have committed treason, and that carries the death penalty. Every person who invaded the US Capitol, who called for hanging the VP and Pelosi, AOC, who supported through words and finances, attempted to overthrow by coup, teh government. And that is treason. Hang a few of them and watch those nut cases suddenly decide to be civil.
AZLD4Candidate
(5,688 posts)amendments simply because these laws are worded "in the commission of a felony." Conviction means nothing, acquittal means nothing.
Do you need to be as aggressive and rude, as well as condescending, in your third sentence when you bark an order to "wake up."
You support state sponsored murder. . .that's your thing. I agree to disagree. I don't want to be on the same list of death penalty countries like North Korea, China, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and Burma.
If you want the US to be included in that list, that's your issue.
Have a wonderful night.
Socal31
(2,484 posts)Guess who actually suffers more when the Establishment is given more power, as you are suggesting? Black people, brown people, the poor, and actual Leftists. See: War on Drugs, Patriot Act, etc.
AZLD4Candidate
(5,688 posts)You think I am advocating giving the government MORE power?
I've lived in countries where government has complete power.
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)It is of more importance to the community that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world, that all of them cannot be punished....when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, 'it is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.' And if such a sentiment as this were to take hold in the mind of the subject that would be the end of all security whatsoever.
On the other hand, Felix Dzerzhinsky. head of the NKVD under Stalin said, 'Better to execute ten innocent men than to leave one guilty man alive." One of his successors, Nikolay Yezhov, restated this argument: "Better that ten innocent people should suffer than one spy get away." Ironically, Yezhov was executed in 1940 during one of Stalin's purges.