The Boston attacker could still face the death penalty

It is rare for a U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a case, but this case is an exception. In 2013, at the end of the Boston Marathon, Sarnev and his brother carried out a bloody attack. Home-made bombs in a pressure cooker killed three people and wounded more than 260.

Sarnev was caught a few days later. His brother had already died in a shootout with police.

Appeal

In 2015, a Kyrgyz-Native American was sentenced to death, but was rejected on appeal. The arbitrator would not have been impartial, so the case had to be reconsidered. The judiciary under President Trump has appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States.

That verdict is coming now, which will extend the death penalty from 2015 onwards. The Supreme Court should also go with the decision taken on appeal, thus deciding that the case should be reconsidered by the lower court.

Survivor relatives need not fear release: life sentence in any case, no matter what the Supreme Court decides. The verdict is expected in June 2022.