XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: rayers@barackobama.com   
      
   BOSTON –  Given the powerful grief and anger over the Boston   
   Marathon bombing, Boston would seem to be a particularly hostile   
   place for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to stand trial. But it might just be   
   his best hope of escaping a death sentence.   
      
   Opposition to the death penalty runs deep in liberal   
   Massachusetts. In a Boston Globe survey in September, 57 percent   
   of Massachusetts residents polled favored life in prison for   
   Tsarnaev, while 33 percent favored execution.   
      
   As Tsarnaev's lawyers weigh whether to attempt to move his trial   
   out of town, away from those most deeply traumatized by the   
   bombing, some legal experts say staying put might be a better   
   strategy, even though emotions in the city are raw.   
      
   "I'd rather take my shot with the citizens of Massachusetts,"   
   said Christopher Dearborn, a professor at Boston's Suffolk Law   
   School. "We're at the highest irony here: We're going to have a   
   death penalty trial in a state where a majority of our citizens   
   don't support the death penalty."   
      
   Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they will seek the   
   death penalty against Tsarnaev, 20, when he goes on trial in the   
   bombing last April that killed three people and injured more   
   than 260 at the crowded finish line of the race. No trial date   
   has been set.   
      
   Massachusetts abolished its death penalty in 1984, and repeated   
   attempts to reinstate it have failed in the Legislature. But   
   Tsarnaev is being prosecuted under federal law.   
      
   If he is convicted, the jury will take part in a second phase of   
   the trial to decide whether he should get life or death. The   
   jury must be unanimous for a death sentence to be imposed.   
      
   During jury selection, potential jurors will be asked about   
   their views on capital punishment. To be selected, they must   
   attest that they are willing to impose death if the evidence   
   warrants it.   
      
   Federal prosecutors have asked a jury for the death penalty in   
   Massachusetts in two other cases.   
      
   A veterans hospital nurse who killed four patients was spared by   
   a federal jury in 2001 in the western Massachusetts city of   
   Springfield. But a jury in Boston in 2003 voted for the death   
   penalty for a drifter convicted in the carjack killings of two   
   men.   
      
   Attorney David Hoose, who represented the nurse, said Tsarnaev's   
   lawyers are likely to hire jury experts who conduct polls and do   
   other research to determine if he can receive a fair trial in   
   Boston federal court, which draws jurors from the metropolitan   
   area and the rest of eastern Massachusetts.   
      
   "It is not always as obvious a decision as you might think,   
   especially when you're in a place like Boston, which by   
   reputation has always been the center of (death penalty)   
   abolitionist beliefs," Hoose said. "You have to weigh that   
   against the raw emotional impact that most people in the eastern   
   section of Massachusetts are going to have."   
      
   Victims of the bombing and their families had mixed reactions to   
   U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to press for   
   execution.   
      
   Even Tsarnaev's friends are struggling with the question of   
   whether he should be put to death if he is found guilty.   
      
   "I don't know if I wish him the best or the worst," said Rebecca   
   Mazur, who went to high school with him. "He certainly screwed   
   up, but he is still a human being."   
      
   Marvin Salazar also went to high school with Tsarnaev but spent   
   two years working with Krystle Campbell, one of those killed in   
   the bombing.   
      
   "I'm in a tough position," he said. "I don't know what justice   
   is."   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/31/in-liberal-mass-jury-could-   
   prove-sympathetic-to-boston-marathon-bombing-   
   suspect/?intcmp=obinsite   
      
   Kill the bastard.  Kill him and have Obama bury the dear boy at   
   sea.  Like he "buried" bin laden.   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)