Prosecutors in Boston bombing case seek death penalty
Federal prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev over the Boston Marathon bombing.
The final decision was made by Attorney General Eric Holder and announced today. The twin blasts last April killed three people and wounded more than 260 in one of the most prominent terrorist attacks in the US since 9/11.
Prosecutors allege that Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the Boston area for about a decade, planted two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shoot-out with police.
Seventeen of 30 charges against Tsarnaev carry the possibility of the death penalty, including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.
The 20-year-old has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.
