BOSTON: A federal judge on Friday rejected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s bid for a new trial and ordered him to pay victims of the deadly attack more than $101 million in restitution.
The restitution order, issued by Judge George O’Toole Jr., is seen as largely symbolic because Tsarnaev is in federal prison and has no ability to pay.
Tsarnaev, 22, was convicted and sentenced last year to death in the 2013 attack. Two pressure cooker bombs placed near the marathon finish line by Tsarnaev and his brother killed three people and injured more than 260 others.
Tsarnaev also was convicted of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer days later. During the sentencing hearing Tsarnaev admitted that he and his brother committed the bombings, and he apologized to the victims.
His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died days after the bombing following a gunbattle with police.
The judge, in his order denying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a new trial, noted that he and a federal appeals court had previously rejected arguments from Tsarnaev’s lawyers that he could not receive a fair trial in Boston, where many people knew the victims or had connections to the marathon. The defense also cited intense and continuing local news coverage of the victims and the anniversary of the bombings.
But the judge said the victims, the trial and other marathon-related events also were covered widely by national and international news organizations.
“There is no reason to think — and certainly no specific evidence — that this extensive coverage would have been any different in kind or degree if the trial had been conducted elsewhere,” he wrote in his order. “This was not a crime that was unknown outside of Boston.”
The judge also rejected Tsarnaev’s renewed challenge to the constitutionality of the federal death penalty. Tsarnaev’s lawyers cited a dissenting opinion in a US Supreme Court ruling last year by Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said they think it’s “highly likely” the death penalty is unconstitutional. But the judge in Tsarnaev’s case said that whatever the merits of the dissent, the majority opinion was the binding precedent.
In that ruling, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the use of midazolam, a sedative that was used in several problematic executions.
Liz Norden, the mother of two men who each lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings, said she was pleased the judge denied Tsarnaev’s request for a new trial.
“I personally think he did get a fair trial,” she said. “He said he did it. He admitted to it. I don’t know why they would even consider that what he got was not deserving.”
Boston Marathon bomber loses bid for new trial, told to pay $101m
Boston Marathon bomber loses bid for new trial, told to pay $101m
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
