# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/41 "2021-10-13T18:40:56Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > I am surprised the Biden administration is pro death penalty here. They’re not. There are two different issues. Issue #1 is that the Biden administration believes the original sentence was imposed fairly. Issue #2 is that they’re opposed in principle to a federal death penalty. IANAL, but ISTM the two issues are legally distinct. ---
**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:** [October 13, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/42 "2021-10-13T18:52:54Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > 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. I consider myself a liberal, but find myself in agreement with you here. I think the standard should be “beyond a shadow of a doubt” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt.” I also agree about facts being allowed to be introduced at the appellate level. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/43 "2021-10-13T23:30:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > They’re not. There are two different issues. Issue #1 is that the Biden administration believes the original sentence was imposed fairly. Issue #2 is that they’re opposed in principle to a federal death penalty. IANAL, but ISTM the two issues are legally distinct. It does seem odd, though. Biden could commute his sentence and moot the case, or alternatively voluntarily dismiss the appeal, and not seek a new penalty phase. He has a moratorium in place on executions which will undoubtedly last his entire term, is opposed to the death penalty, yet will keep this one guy under a death sentence for…what exactly? He has the full lawful power to put his preferences into action here. He could empty the federal and military death row with the stroke of a pen. It’s another of my criticisms of the U.S. death penalty system. It seems that we have a great propensity to talk tough about the death penalty, but in practice, very few jurisdictions (and few jurisdictions within those jurisdictions) really want to see executions. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/44 "2021-10-14T00:07:37Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Biden could commute his sentence Which I’m sure would just be great for his poll numbers. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/45 "2021-10-14T05:15:19Z")
If opposing the death penalty on principle will tank his poll numbers, then that is what should happen if he opposes the death penalty. Or vice versa. Or maybe the public would be happy to have a death penalty, but only reserve it for the Tsarnaev, the Dylan Roof, the McVeigh. In any event, politics in this country has gone to hell when a dual and conflicting position like this can be taken so transparently without political consequences. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/46 "2021-10-14T05:40:37Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > In any event, politics in this country has gone to hell when a dual and conflicting position like this can be taken so transparently without political consequences. I don’t see a conflicting position. Biden is all about the politically possible and not the ideal. He’s a realist, not an idealist. He knows he can push his anti-death penalty agenda only so far. He can do what he’s done now with little backlash. But to be seen doing anything to help this particular mass murderer? No, that would be a bridge too far. Especially given where Biden’s poll numbers are now. He doesn’t have the political capital to pull this off. He has other things he wants to accomplish. This is just how the world works. The ideological purist will be unable to get anything done. Politics is about the possible. That’s why I hate it whenever progressives make the perfect the enemy of the good. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/47 "2021-10-16T01:53:48Z")
Also its not as if he has to decide right now. He could wait to see how things pan out, and then commute his sentence at the last minute if he feels strongly enough about it. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/48 "2021-10-16T02:03:08Z")
IIRC Tim Kaine when he was Governor of Virginia said he wouldn’t pardon or commute death sentences en masse just because he was morally opposed to the death penalty. He said it wasn’t a proper use of the executive power, and it was up to the legislature of the commonwealth to remove capital punishment legislatively. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/49 "2021-10-31T17:00:26Z")
This was the issue in one _West Wing_ episode. Bartlett was personally opposed to the death penalty, based on his Roman Catholic faith. An application for commutation landed on his desk and he had to decide what to do. One of the concerns raised was his constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Congress had passed the death penalty; was it appropriate for him to commute, simply based on his own personal views? Would doing so raise a due process claim when a commutation application landed on the desk of the next president, that the death penalty now depended on the whims of the president, so was contrary to due process? Or was it his duty to commute because he thought it was wrong, and had campaigned on ending the death penalty? In the end, he doesn’t commute, the prisoner is executed, and in the last scene, Bartlett is in confession: “Bless me father for I have sinned.” Is he saying that he sinned in not commuting? That he’s not sure that he made the right decision? That he made the right decision as President, but now has the blood of the prisoner on his hands, when he could have stopped it? ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/50 "2021-11-07T22:27:45Z")
That was also the episode where after Bartelet said he was wanting a sign, the priest told him the joke about the man who drowned after a flood , with God saying’ what are doing here , I sent you a radio report, a helicopter and a man in a boat" Great episode, well a lot of them were. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/51 "2021-11-07T22:36:56Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > He is guilty as heck. He and his brother killed three people. > > Further, the Supreme Court is stacked to the max. It looks bad for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. > > That being said, I think I am still opposed to the death penalty. What do you think? I am implacably opposed to the death penalty. It’s evil. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/52 "2021-11-07T23:03:51Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > One of the concerns raised was his constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Congress had passed the death penalty; was it appropriate for him to commute, simply based on his own personal views? Would doing so raise a due process claim when a commutation application landed on the desk of the next president, that the death penalty now depended on the whims of the president, so was contrary to due process? If the President has the power to commute a sentence, then it is fair for the President to do so based on his personal view that the sentence is unjust, even despite any law Congress passes. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/53 "2021-11-08T07:27:31Z")
> [@Precambrianmollusc](#): > > That was also the episode where after Bartelet said he was wanting a sign, the priest told him the joke about the man who drowned after a flood , with God saying’ what are doing here , I sent you a radio report, a helicopter and a man in a boat" Here’s the scene. And yes, the priest is played by Karl Malden in his final acting role. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/06dQaOZIcH0/hqdefault.jpg "West Wing: Take This Sabbath Day, "The Man Who Lived By the River"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dQaOZIcH0) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/54 "2021-11-08T15:51:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If the President has the power to commute a sentence, then it is fair for the President to do so based on his personal view that the sentence is unjust, even despite any law Congress passes. Right, as long as there’s the constitutional power of clemency, exercised discretionarily, that is the law of the land, and _by design_ overrides what Congress may have passed, a jury found or a court sentenced. And the discretion includes acting on individual conscience _if you so choose_. If you feel guilty about having or not having chosen so, take it up with your spiritual counsel like that fictional scene portrays. That too often we have seen it applied questionably, has created in many the impression that any grant of clemency, even mere commutation, is somehow a statement that what the person did was not _so_ wrong. That is pernicious since it makes it so much harder to argue meritorious cases for clemency _ **as clemency** _, not as absolution. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/55 "2021-11-09T18:13:38Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > One of the concerns raised was his constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Congress had passed the death penalty; was it appropriate for him to commute, simply based on his own personal views? Would doing so raise a due process claim when a commutation application landed on the desk of the next president, that the death penalty now depended on the whims of the president, so was contrary to due process? I would tend to agree with this and say that was what Biden was doing, but out of the other side of his mouth, he has imposed a moratorium on executions. If he was so concerned about upholding the law despite his personal beliefs, he would be executing people as well as fighting in the courts to preserve death sentences ---
**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:** [March 4, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/56 "2022-03-04T16:40:39Z")
> The [Supreme Court](https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/supreme-court-nine) on Friday [upheld the death sentence](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-443_m6ho.pdf) of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers responsible for the 2013 [Boston Marathon bombing](https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/us/boston-marathon-terror-attack-fast-facts/index.html) which led to the deaths of three spectators and a police officer, reversing a lower court decision. > > The ruling was 6-3 along conservative-liberal lines. > > “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority. “The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one.” [https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/04/politics/tsarnaev-supreme-court/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/04/politics/tsarnaev-supreme-court/index.html) ---
**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:** [March 4, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-case-over-death-penalty-for-boston-marathon-bomber-and-upholds-the-sentence-edited/938437/57 "2022-03-04T16:57:25Z")
Here is the opinion: > **[20-443\_m6ho.pdf](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-443_m6ho.pdf)** > > 464.24 KB [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=2)