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A federal appeals court is once again considering tossing convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence due to juror misconduct claims, according to NBC Boston.
Tsarnaev's attorney argued that issues weren't considered by the Supreme Court after it reinstated a death sentence initially imposed in relation to the 2013 incident, which included a trial judge wrongly denying the defense's challenge of two jurors who they claimed lied during jury selection questioning.
One of the jurors denied commenting about the case online, but admitted to retweeting a post that referred to Tsarnaev as a "piece of garbage."
Another juror said his Facebook friends hadn't commented on the trial, though one had urged him to "play the part" to be selected to the jury and ensure that Tsarnaev would be sent "to jail where he will be taken care off," according to defense attorneys via NBC Boston.
Tsarnaev is currently incarcerated at the supermax Federal Correctional Complex Florence after being convicted six years ago for an incident that killed three people and injured more than 260 after two pressure cooker bombs were set off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The 28-year-old's older brother, Tamerlan, who was also a suspect in the bombing, was killed during a shooting with police three days later.
Tsarnaev was initially sentenced to death, which was overturned in July 2020 after a three-judge panel ruled that the trial judge "fell short" while screening the jury for potential biases, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and once again reversed in March 2022.