UPDATED: 4:00 p.m.
Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be formally sentenced to death at a still to be determined date in late June. At a post-penalty hearing today, U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole, who oversaw the Tsarnaev trial, pushed aside defense lawyers’ request for a later date.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team could not convince a Boston jury last week to spare their client’s life -- a life that may have been cut just a little bit shorter by Judge O’ Toole’s decision to proceed to sentencing sooner rather than later.
The defense requested that the formal sentencing take place in August – more than 90 days from now. Lead attorney Judy Clarke said that would give them ample time to file post-verdict motions and extensive paperwork.
But prosecutors balked, citing the interest of victims.
Asst. US Attorney Bill Weinreb said: “I feel there’s a very strong interest in finality in all this and 90 days seems like an excessive amount of time.’’
Judge O’Toole agreed and said that the hearing will take place in late June. Twenty or more bombing survivors will directly address Tsarnaev before he is placed permanently in the hands of the federal department of corrections and transported to the death penalty prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The defense will then begin the appeal’s process.
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U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole had hoped to set a date for death penalty sentencing at the end of June or early July, but the defense team representing convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev asked that the one-day formal court session be held in August.
This would be an extension of 90 days to allow for the study of sealed documents and transcripts.
Government lawyers, in turn, asked the judge to expedite the hearing, which they say 20 victims and survivors have asked to address Tsarneav face to face.
O'Toole has taken both requests under advisement. He will announce a date for sentencing in the coming days.
