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Accused Boston Marathon bomber due in court as trial nears

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is due in court on Monday for a hearing in which defense lawyers and federal prosecutors will tussle over a few remaining logistical matters before opening statements later this week.

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Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is due in court on Monday for a hearing in which defense lawyers and federal prosecutors will tussle over a few remaining logistical matters before opening statements later this week.

A final flurry of motions was filed under seal on Friday, offering little clarity on what lawyers will debate Monday.

Tsarnaev, 21, is accused of killing three people and injuring 264 with two homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the race's crowded finish line on April 15, 2013, and with fatally shooting a police officer three days later as he tried to flee the city.

He could face a death sentence if convicted of carrying out the largest mass-casualty attack on US soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Tsarnaev's brother Tamerlan, who authorities say joined him in the crimes, was killed in a shootout with police a few days after the bombing.

Tsarnaev's attorneys lost a round on Friday with a three-judge appellate panel rejected their request to move the trial out of Boston. The defense had been seeking the move for months, arguing that it would be all but impossible to seat an impartial jury due to the large number of Bostonians with a personal connection to the attack.

Defense lawyers last week challenged the jury-selection process, arguing that the court violated some of its own rules while winnowing down the field of more than 1,350 potential jurors first called to US District Court in Boston in early January.

On Tuesday, attorneys will make the final cuts from the remaining pool of about 70 qualified jurors to pick the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates to hear the case. US District Judge George O'Toole has said proceedings could last into June.

Prosecutors contend that Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, carried out the bombing attack. Tamaerlan, 26, died following a gunbattle with police on April 18, 2013.

In a related case, the Boston Globe reported on Monday that the parents of Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamerlan's shot and killed by an FBI agent during the investigation into the attack, plan to sue the federal law enforcement agency.

The man's father, Abdulbaki Todashev, told the newspaper in an interview that he would be filing a notice of claim, a preliminary step to filing a lawsuit.

 

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