Boston Marathon Bombing Trial

Over 1,300 prospective jurors completed questionnaires for a chance to serve on a panel of jurors in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Boston Marathon Bombing trial. Of those prospective jurors, the judge presiding over the trial narrowed down the jury pool to just over 250 people through the process of voir dire. By personally interviewing each prospective juror individually, the judge is able to determine which of those jurors are the most qualified and competent to serve on a trial jury. The 250 jury prospects were eventually whittled down to a mere 18, 12 of whom sat on the jury panel for the duration of the trial and 6 of whom were alternates.

The final jurors selected for the trial consisted of 10 women and 8 men, all of whose careers varied as widely as their opinions on the death penalty. The jurors ranged in age from early twenties and thirties up to retirement age. The majority were middle to older aged Americans, mostly of Caucasian descent, however the youngest jury member was of Islamic heritage. The defense protested against the selection of a predominantly white jury, and even attempted to change the venue of the trial by moving it outside of Boston, but to no avail. The prosecution believed each and every juror had been carefully and

In my opinion, I believe the jury selection process was conducted fairly and the final jurors selected to serve during the trial were selected properly, however I can also understand the defense’s concerns. Unfortunately, many people are unable to set their personal biases aside when it comes to race. People allow the skin color or religious beliefs of the accused, or the heinousness of the crime to cloud their judgement of the truth rather than let the evidence and witness testimony tell what really