AKIPRESS.COM - 
A U.S. appeals court has rejected a fourth request to move the trial for the accused Boston Marathon bomber to another city.
The death penalty trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been delayed by painstaking jury selection, crippling snowstorms and last-ditch appeals for change of venue. Earlier this month, Judge George O'Toole, along with the prosecution and defense teams, settled on a pool of 70 jury prospects after questioning 256 people over three weeks, reports CNN.
Before the appeals court ruled Friday, the defense tried three times to persuade O'Toole to move the trial, claiming it couldn't find an impartial jury in Boston. He refused. The attorneys will weed out jurors they believe are less sympathetic to their case next week.
When that is done, the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates is expected to be formally seated to hear opening statements and the first witnesses to an event that cut Boston to its core. O'Toole indicated the trial could last well into June.
The jurors first will decide whether Tsarnaev is guilty of using weapons of mass destruction to kill people at a large public event. If Tsarnaev is convicted, the jury then will decide whether he should be punished by life in prison without the possibility of release or death, most likely by lethal injection.
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