Jury Selected in Boston Marathon Bombing Trial

BOSTON—After a months-long process, eighteen jurors were selected in the Boston Marathon bombing trial of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Tuesday afternoon. Opening arguments for the trial will begin on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Eight men and 10 women will determine the fate of Tsarnaev, who has plead not guilty to 30 charges in connection with bombings that killed three and injured more than 260 at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev is also charged with the fatal shooting of MIT police officer Sean Collier on April 18, 2013.

Seventeen of the counts carry the possibility of the death penalty. Tsarnaev attended Wednesday’s hearing at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston and sat in the front of the courtroom, writing on a notepad and speaking with his legal team.

“He looked tired to me,” said Nancy Cederholm, who was cut from the jury in the last round.

The jurors selected—12 members who will take part in deliberations and six alternates—include a restaurant manager, an air traffic control operator, a social worker at the state Department of Developmentally Disabled, and an auditor who was recently laid off from his job. All of the jurors are white, with one man of Iranian descent, according to the Boston Globe.

At the final jury selection in the in the courthouse, the 18 jurors, out of a pool of 64, were selected within 40 minutes. Both the defense and prosecution were entitled to eliminate 23 potential jurors each without having to provide justification.

“It was nerve racking,” Cederholm said. “No, I didn’t want to get on the jury… I can go back and do my job.”

U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. along with both prosecution and defense lawyers started to narrow a list of 1,373 prospective jurors in early January. Among a pool of 256 potential jurors selected for in-court interviews, at least two are affiliated with Harvard, according to the Boston Globe. While neither of those two individuals will serve on the jury, it remains unclear if any of the chosen jurors are affiliated with the University.

A couple of minutes before 1 p.m. on Tuesday, individuals who were not selected to serve on the jury filed out, some chattering amongst themselves about returning to work, others in silence.

Despite repeated requests by Tsarnaev’s defense team to relocate the trial outside of Boston, O’Toole maintained that the trial could be judged fairly in the district. Dismissed juror Hazel Graham said she thought the jurors could remain open in this case.

“I don’t know that a fair trial could have been held anywhere,” Graham said. “Perhaps the fairest trial would be here.”

The trial will be held in two phases: in the first, jurors will determine whether Tsarnaev is guilty of the charges held against him. If they convict him of charges that carry the death penalty, the jurors will then weigh whether he should receive life in prison without parole or the death penalty. O’Toole has said the trial could last through June.

—Staff writer Mariel A. Klein can be reached at mariel.klein@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mariel_klein.

—Staff writer Brooke A. Bourgeois can be reached at brooke.bourgeois@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @bro_bourgeois.

—Staff writer Brett J. Dowling can be reached at brett.dowling@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @brettjd1996.