A request to move the upcoming trial of the accused Boston Marathon bomber out of the city was expected from attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who were due in federal court on Wednesday.
Lawyers for accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, had asked U.S. District Judge George O'Toole to give them more time to prepare their arguments for moving the trial outside of Boston where a pair of homemade bombs killed three people and injured 264 others. But the judge last week rejected that request, saying that the June 18 deadline allowed them ample time to prepare, according to Reuters.
Tsarnaev is the surviving member of a pair of ethnic Chechen brothers who federal prosecutors contend planted the bombs at the crowded finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 13, 2013, and three days later shot dead a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer.
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Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He faces the threat of execution if convicted at a trial scheduled to begin in November.
U.S. laws generally require a person accused of a crime to stand trial in the district where it was committed. Defendants can seek to have proceedings moved to another location where potential jurors may have been less influenced by pretrial publicity.
Another judge at U.S. District Court in Boston last month rejected a bid to move out of state the upcoming trials of three friends of Tsarnaev accused of interfering with the investigation by taking a laptop and backpack from his dormitory room.
That judge, Douglas Woodlock, suggested the trial could move to Springfield, Massachusetts, about 90 miles (145 km) west of Boston, in the event of difficulty in choosing a jury, though he said he regarded that as unlikely.
Defense attorneys have also asked for officials at the prison west of Boston where Tsarnaev is being held to allow him to meet jointly with his lawyers and family members without the presence of an agent involved in the prosecution.
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