Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is making a last-ditch bid to move his terrorism trial to another city, arguing that local news media are turning potential jurors against him with stories comparing him to Islamic State militants.
The Sunni Muslim insurgent group, also known as ISIS, has made headlines worldwide for its mass executions and beheadings in parts of Iraq and Syria. Reports connecting Tsarnaev, 21, to the group hurt his chance at a fair trial in Boston, defense lawyers said in a court filing Monday.
The trial, set to start Jan. 5 in Boston federal court, should be delayed and moved to New York or Washington, the attorneys have argued. The proceeding could last four months, meaning it would overlap with the two-year anniversary of the marathon bombing, which killed three spectators and wounded 260 others in April 2013.