The mother of two Boston Marathon bombing victims is calling an appeals court decision ordering a probe of possible juror bias in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s murder trial “crazy.”
“It’s just ridiculous,” said Liz Norden, whose two adult sons lost legs in the April 2013 twin bombings at the finish line of the race.
“It’s been 11 years and we’re still at a standstill,” she told the Herald Thursday evening after the court ruling broke. “It’s crazy. I just hope I’m still alive to see this end.” Liz Norden and her sons, J.P. and Paul, have started their own foundations, “A Leg Forever,” to help those who face mounting bills paying for prosthetics.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals states allegations of potential juror bias “requires further factfinding by the district court.” This does not change the death sentence, but does keep this case open yet again.
It also hits just as the 128th running of the Boston Marathon is set to start in Hopkinton and end in Boston on April 15.
The appeals court states ” the district court’s investigation fell short of what was constitutionally required” over this one issue. If bias is shown, the court adds, Tsarnaev will be “entitled to a new penalty-phase proceeding.”
The alleged bias is over social media postings about the bombing made by two jurors in the death penalty phase of Tsarnaev’s case.
The court added: “And even then, we once again emphasize that the only question in any such proceeding will be whether Tsarnaev will face execution; regardless of the outcome, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has already reinstated the death sentence against Tsarnaev for planting and triggering the bombs on Boylston Street that killed three and maimed hundreds more.
The bombing killed Martin Richard, 8; Krystle Campbell, 29; and Lu Lingzi, 23. More than 260 people were injured. MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, 27, was shot execution-style days later by the Tsarnaevs.
Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds, 28, injured in the Watertown shootout in which Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed, died in April 2014.
Tsarnaev is locked up in the Federal Correctional Complex Florence in Colorado — a Supermax called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”
