Today, Bloomberg said US District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr had set the date for the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev has been accused as the bomber of the Boston Marathon bombing happened last year. O'Toole Jr said that Tsarnaev will be going to trial on November 3 after rejecting defense's request to push the trial back to September 2015 at the earlier.
O'Toole Jr stated, "That's the calendar. I think it is a realistic and fair one."
Tsarnaev could be sentenced to death if convicted off all charges, said Bloomberg. The twin bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon left three dead and over 260 people, which consisted of spectators and runners, injured. On January 30, US Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the US government will be pursuing capital punishment for the 20 year-old suspect should he get convicted of the crimes.
Should a jury find Tsarnaev guilty, a separate trial will be held at a later time to decide whether he would be put to death.
Tsarnaev reportedly submitted a not guilty plea on all 30 counts in July last year, which included the murder of a university police officer. Tsarnaev allegedly shot the police officer in the days following the terror attack, Bloomberg said.
Tsarnaev was found by police hiding on a boat after a tip from a concerned citizen, said Reuters. He was reportedly covered in blood, which could have been of his brother Tamerlan, who is another suspect and was dead when police cornered the brothers in Watertown.
According to Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis in an interview, the twin bombings could have been the brothers' initial target for future terror attacks. Police later on found four unexploded devices, with two of them similar to the pressure cooker bombs packed with nails and ball bearing used in the Boston Marathon bombings, Reuters said.
