Tsarnaev Day 14: The government continues to prove its case, by asserting that the bombs used in the April 2013 attack were made in the Cambridge apartment of the oldest brother of defendant Dzokhar Tsarnaev, and that they can trace those bombs to the explosions that killed three people, and wounded more than 260 others at the finish line.
Boston College Law Professor Robert Bloom, who has been a frequent analyst of the trial for WGBH radio, says, "the prosecution wants to end ironically, on a high note for its case, by using powerful, emotional testimony for the jurors and by showing autopsy photos of the victims, so that the jurors won't forget what happened," creating a difficult day in court.
Bloom tells WGBH Morning Edition host Bob Seay, "the defense has made small strides in attempting to demonstrate that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the brother of the defendant was the mastermind behind the attacks."
Tsarnaev Day 13: Jurors learned details Tuesday about the defendants life and how three months prior to the attacks, Dzokhar Tsarnaev told school officials how he was unable to concentrate on his studies at UMass Dartmouth because he had "lost too many" loved ones in Chechnya during the previous year. Jurors in Tsarnaev's federal death penalty trial were shown a form the defendant filled out explaining his poor grades.
Boston College Law Professor Robert Bloom says, " the evidence probably helps the defendant by showing that he was probably distressed because his parents had gone back to Russia and his grades were lousy. In someways the information helps the defense."
Bloom says, " the prosecutions effort to demonstrate that the two brothers had gone to a New Hampshire firing range as practice prior to the Watertown shootout with police was somewhat of a success in the courtroom, because it clearly paints a picture that Dzokhar part of the planning of the attacks."
To listen to the complete interviews click on the audio links above.
