While Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers have argued that potential jurors might be biased based by the recent attacks in France, or because the region was so traumatized by the 2013 marathon bombing, there may be quite another cause for concern.
At the beginning of January, more than 1,200 people were summoned to the federal courthouse in Boston. These potential jurors in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s forthcoming trial were questioned in groups of 200 as the presiding judge winnowed the multitude down, and he has continued to do so in a second phase of questioning that began today. Although this process, called voir dire, is taking place in Massachusetts, which does not have the death penalty for state crimes, this is a federal case so it does permit the prosecution to seek the death penalty. Since nearly half of the state’s six million residents identify as Catholic, however, a sizable number of potential jurors—those who follow the Church’s teaching on capital punishment—are likely to be excluded from jury service for their religious beliefs.1
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