BOSTON (AP) — Just one final step remains before a jury is seated in the federal death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates is expected to be selected Tuesday after prosecutors and Tsarnaev’s lawyers are allowed to eliminate jurors for strategic reasons.
Judge George O’Toole Jr. has provisionally qualified about 70 people. Each side will be given 23 peremptory strikes to excuse jurors without giving a reason.
Opening statements are expected Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Tsarnaev is accused of conspiring with his older brother, Tamerlan, to plant two pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon’s finish line on April 15, 2013. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a gun battle with police days later.
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