# Supreme Court agrees to hear case over death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber \[and upholds the sentence–edited\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 22, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437 "2021-03-22T14:57:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/21 "2021-03-22T18:54:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Tsarnaev wasn’t spared the death penalty because a jury of his peers looked at his crimes and decided they didn’t merit death, he was spared because the judge fucked up the process of sentencing him. That’s not a trivial difference. Another way of saying that is he wasn’t spared because a jury of his peers looked at his crimes and decided they didn’t merit death, he was spared because the judge failed to create a situation where the defendant could get a fair jury of his peers for the sentencing phase. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/22 "2021-03-22T21:37:15Z")
If we’re dealing with the death penalty, the question that comes up is what make such a jury unbiased? Would jurors be excluded if they are morally opposed to the death penalty? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/23 "2021-03-22T22:21:33Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > That being said, I think I am still opposed to the death penalty. What do you think? I also think I am still opposed to the death penalty. However, my view is apparently not the majority in this country and things look dire for Mr. Tsarnaev. I wonder if he has any regrets for what he’s done? As a result of his actions his brother is dead and he will never be free ever again. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/24 "2021-03-22T23:34:22Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in tiny concrete cells in which even the “furniture” is concrete. Some have attempted suicide, others have been driven insane. They can’t even starve themselves to death; those who try are force-fed liquid nourishment through the nose. A former warden there described their existence as “worse than death”. If Tsarnaev succeeds in avoiding the death penalty, he’ll live to regret it. Indeed. I would submit that such a punishment is far more inhumane and cruel than the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/25 "2021-03-23T01:15:28Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Would jurors be excluded if they are morally opposed to the death penalty? I understand the standard is “Can you vote for the death penalty under some circumstances?” ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/26 "2021-03-23T01:22:09Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in tiny concrete cells in which even the “furniture” is concrete. Some have attempted suicide, others have been driven insane. They can’t even starve themselves to death; those who try are force-fed liquid nourishment through the nose. May not be considered “unusual punishment”, but it certainly strikes me as cruel. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/27 "2021-03-23T01:22:28Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > I understand the standard is “Can you vote for the death penalty under some circumstances?” I personally could, but it would be at a higher standard. The defendant would have to be shown to be guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt before I could vote in favor of the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/28 "2021-03-23T01:24:14Z")
So what was “biased” about his jury? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/29 "2021-03-23T01:30:43Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > If we’re dealing with the death penalty, the question that comes up is what make such a jury unbiased? Would jurors be excluded if they are morally opposed to the death penalty? In fact, they are. Potential jurors in death penalty cases must be “death qualified,” meaning they are able to consider imposing the death penalty as a punishment. In the court where I worked, after potential jurors are time-qualified (meaning they can sit and hear the case for its anticipated duration without hardship due to lost wages, etc.), this is done before any other voir dire takes place. I would not personally qualify to sit on a death penalty case. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/30 "2021-03-23T03:42:17Z")
The first sentence gives a summary of why the sentence was reversed. [https://www.americanbar.org/groups/committees/death\_penalty\_representation/project\_press/2020/fall-2020/tsarnaev-death-sentence-reversed/](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/committees/death_penalty_representation/project_press/2020/fall-2020/tsarnaev-death-sentence-reversed/) ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/31 "2021-03-23T13:19:57Z")
Whatever that means. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/32 "2021-03-23T13:25:43Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > The defendant would have to be shown to be guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt before I could vote in favor of the death penalty. Anyone who ever voted to execute someone was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt of guilt. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/33 "2021-03-23T13:48:46Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > beyond a shadow of a doubt Reasonable doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/34 "2021-03-23T14:41:09Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Whatever that means. The point isn’t that the jury was biased, it’s that they didn’t take enough care to ensure the jury wasn’t biased. There’s no way to know if there was a bias after the fact, so in the service of justice they took the most conservative course of action, to void the death penalty. The exclusion of relevant mitigating evidence is more straightforward. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/35 "2021-03-23T14:45:29Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Anyone who ever voted to execute someone was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt of guilt. Maybe they felt that, but obviously many of them were incorrect given the many cases of people on death row who were subsequently shown to be innocent. The usual standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. I think this is insufficient for a death penalty case. The jury instructions should be such that there is incontrovertible proof of guilt. Things like being caught red handed plus video evidence plus multiple eyewitnesses plus forensic evidence like fingerprints and DNA, plus electronic records as appropriate to the case such as credit card transactions, GPS location on a cell phone, etc. All of these should be present and incontrovertible. Here’s a few cases I picked out at random from the wikipedia article on exonerated death row inmates. > **[Alan Gell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Gell)** > > James Alan Gell (born 1974 in North Carolina) is an American who was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder in 1998 and sentenced to death in Bertie County, North Carolina, at the age of 22. He served nine years as an inmate on death row before being acquitted in a second trial in 2004; he was freed from prison and exonerated that year. He was the 113th person to be freed from death row in the United States. > The State Superior Court determined that the prosecution had withheld significant e... This case featured exculpatory evidence withheld by the prosecution and conflicting eyewitness testimony with some of the witnesses changing their stories. > **[Kirk Bloodsworth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Bloodsworth)** > > Kirk Noble Bloodsworth (born October 31, 1960) is a former Maryland waterman and the first American sentenced to death to be exonerated post-conviction by DNA testing. > He had been wrongfully convicted in 1985 of the 1984 rape and first-degree murder of a nine-year-old girl in Rosedale, Maryland. By the time an appeal based on the DNA evidence was underway, his sentence had been commuted to two consecutive life sentences. He gained release from prison and a full exoneration in 1993. > Bloodsworth ... Witnesses reported seeing the defendant with the victim, but no reports of direct observation of the crime. DNA evidence also subsequently showed the defendant not to be the offender. > **[Anthony Charles Graves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Charles_Graves)** > > Anthony Charles Graves (born August 29, 1965) is the 138th exonerated death row inmate in America. With no record of violence, he was arrested at 26 years old, wrongfully convicted, and incarcerated for 18 years before finally being exonerated and released. He was awarded $1.4 million for the time he spent imprisoned, and the prosecutor who put him in prison was ultimately disbarred for concealing exculpatory evidence and using false testimony in the case. > Graves grew up in Brenham and is the ol... There was no physical evidence or motive. Conviction was based on testimony from one person who was subsequently found to have been the murderer. I wasn’t on any of those juries, but if those jurors honestly felt that those convicted were guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, then that phrase doesn’t mean what I think it means. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/36 "2021-03-23T21:11:01Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The point isn’t that the jury was biased, it’s that they didn’t take enough care to ensure the jury wasn’t biased. There’s no way to know if there was a bias after the fact, so in the service of justice they took the most conservative course of action, to void the death penalty. Why haven’t a few hundred more convicts tried that? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/37 "2021-03-23T21:52:09Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Maybe they felt that, but obviously many of them were incorrect given the many cases of people on death row who were subsequently shown to be innocent. That is my point, and why I don’t like the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/38 "2021-03-23T23:40:21Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Why haven’t a few hundred more convicts tried that? What makes you think they haven’t? As far as I can tell it comes up very frequently in death penalty appeals. High profile death penalty cases tend to have a significant amount of attention and review that might not happen for lower profile cases. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/39 "2021-03-24T05:39:33Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > What makes you think they haven’t? As far as I can tell it comes up very frequently in death penalty appeals. High profile death penalty cases tend to have a significant amount of attention and review that might not happen for lower profile cases. Indeed and it is why many defense attorneys secretly but not consciously hope their convicted clients get sentenced to death instead of life without parole. You get appointed the best appellate attorneys and special interest groups look at your case. If you are just a regular lifer doing a 23 hour per day lockdown, you are not as interesting because you don’t fit the agenda of some of these groups. I’m generally in favor of the death penalty, but not how it is carried out in the United States. I mean, we are almost 6 years after the Marathon Bombing and he hasn’t finished his direct appeals yet. It’s a joke. I would be in favor of a special system for capital punishment. A higher standard of guilt. More fact finding at the appellate level and true expediency in the process for those for whom guilt in certain and special circumstances exist. Hell, look at Scott Peterson. It took 16 YEARS for his FIRST appellate review to happen. That is a travesty whether it is death or imprisonment for life. How dysfunctional is a court system that takes 16 years to take a first look at a trial court? That’s not fair to the defendant, the state, or the victims. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/40 "2021-10-13T18:02:29Z")
> **[Supreme Court conservatives appear ready to endorse death sentence for Boston...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/13/politics/boston-marathon-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-death-penalty/index.html)** > > Eight years after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which led to the deaths of three spectators and a police officer, the Supreme Court seemed ready Wednesday to reinstate the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers involved in... “The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to step in and reinstate the original sentence, **a request that the Biden administration renewed** ” I am surprised the Biden administration is pro death penalty here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437.md?page=3)