Boston bombing trial to hear opening statements Wednesday

After a long jury selection that saw a pool of 1,373 potential jurors, the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect behind the April 2013 attacks on the Boston Marathon, is set to hear opening statements on March 4.

The pool of potential jurors took a long time to find, the event having been covered so heavily in the media. The jury pool now stands at 70 and it is expected that 12 jurors and six alternates will be selected on Tuesday with opening statements at 9 a.m. the following morning, barring any word otherwise from an appellate court.

Defence lawyers wanted the trial moved out of the Boston area, claiming it would be too difficult to find impartial jurors. Their case was heard by an appeals court and could still delay the trial further.

Jury selection began on Jan. 5. Many in the huge pool of potential jurors said they were still upset about the attacks or that they were adamantly against the death penalty, the penalty the government is seeking. Others said they have already decided Tsarnaev was guilty.

Because the government is seeking the death penalty, jurors must be open to the idea of him being sentenced to death. Massachusetts doesn’t have the  death penalty, but Tsarnaev is being tried in federal court. He faces 30 charges, 17 of which carry the possibility of receiving the death penalty, for the attacks on the marathon and the ensuing gunfights that terrorized the city in the following days.