Update, 12:23 p.m.: Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have urged a judge to grant him a new trial.
Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 bombings, which killed three people.
Tsarnaev's lawyers told a judge Tuesday that a recent Supreme Court ruling calls into question 15 of the 30 counts against him. The defense argued that those counts likely influenced jurors when they decided he deserved the death penalty, so Tsarnaev should receive a new trial and a new sentencing proceeding.
Tsarnaev's lawyers said at trial that he and his older brother carried out the bombings, but said his brother was the mastermind and Dzhokhar didn't deserve the death penalty.
Tsarnaev didn't attend Tuesday's hearing.
Judge George O'Toole Jr. didn't immediately rule.
———
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are heading to court to urge a judge to grant him a new trial.
Judge George O'Toole Jr. is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in federal court, but only on the portion of Tsarnaev's motion related to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued after Tsarnaev's trial.
Twin bombs placed near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the attack.
Tsarnaev's lawyers argue that a June Supreme Court ruling throws 15 of his convictions into question. The ruling centered on the legal definition of a "crime of violence," a distinction that can carry stiffer penalties. The court struck down part of the definition as unconstitutionally vague.
