Jury Selection Resumes in Tsarnaev Trial; Attorneys Argue, Venue Change Unlikely

A federal prosecutor in the trial of accused Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has accused a defense lawyer of trying to "encourage" a hung jury. 

It's the latest turn in the jury selection phase, which has already taken much longer than expected.

Judge George O'Toole Jr. had set last Monday as the date for opening statements, but he has yet to seat a jury of 12 to hear the case. The trial resumed Thursday after two days of delay because of a massive snowfall in the Boston area.

Once underway, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said defense attorney David Bruck asked a "wholly inappropriate" question when he probed a man with a supervisory job about whether he would listen to the opinions of other jurors.

Weinreb told Judge O'Toole that he viewed Bruck's question as an "instruction" that no juror could change another juror's view about whether the death penalty would be an appropriate punishment. Bruck said he was merely asking the juror if he understood that in the end, all jurors have to make their own decisions.

Because of the wide publicity surrounding the bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260, disrupted an international sporting event, and led to a manhunt that shut down parts of the Boston area for days, it has been hard to find unbiased jurors, who would also be willing to impose a death penalty.

Defense attorneys have asked the judge three times to consider moving the trial, citing a questionnaire that was taken by more than 1,300 prospective jurors. "Sixty-eight percent of them presumed he was guilty before hearing any evidence," said David Boeri, senior reporter for WBUR, who's been covering the case. In that survey, sixty-nine percent of the jury pool had some sort of personal connection with the case, those who were injured, or the police. "The defense says these numbers are overwhelming, and they indicate that the trial has to be moved," Boeri told WNPR's Where We Live.

Despite these numbers, Boeri said O'Toole has his heels dug in. "The judge is insistent that in a population of five million people in Eastern Massachusetts, he's going to be able to find a fair and impartial jury, and that's what he's bent on doing," Boeri said. "What's key here is whether people can put aside their preconceptions, what they know about the case, and follow the facts and the law." 

This report includes information from The Associated Press.