The trial for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 21-year-old former University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth student accused of planting two bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon finish line, will remain in Boston and start on Jan. 5, 2015, U.S. Federal District Court Judge George O’Toole stated in his decision filed Wednesday.
Tsarnaev is facing 30 federal charges in association with the attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. His defense team filed a request June 18 for a change in venue for the trial, citing an expert’s survey that 60 percent of Boston’s population believes Tsarnaev to be “definitely guilty.”
“To be sure, a presumption of prejudice will only arise in the extreme case,” the defense wrote in their June motion. “But this is such a case.”
The defense had also filed for a postponement of the trial to give the team additional time for preparation. In Wednesday’s decision, the court denied the venue change, but granted the trial postponement, pushing the start date of the trial two months later than originally planned.
Countering the claim that this case is an “extreme” one in which a “presumption of prejudice” will arise, the court stated the defendant has not adequately proven that prejudice of the jury in this trial can be presumed.
“Although the media coverage in this case has been extensive, at this stage the defendant has failed to show that it has so inflamed and pervasively prejudiced the pool that a fair and impartial jury cannot be empaneled in this District.”
The final pretrial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 18.
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