Today, United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. authorized the government to seek the death penalty in the case of United States v. Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. We support this decision and the trial team is prepared to move forward with the prosecution.
A short time ago, the government filed with the Court the required notice of intent to seek the death penalty. The case will now continue to proceed through the pretrial process and the next scheduled court event is a status conference set for Feb. 12, 2014.
While I understand the public interest in this matter, we have rules that limit the release of information and the scope of public statements. The process by which this decision was made is confidential, and I will not comment further about that process other than to say that it entailed a careful and detailed consideration of the particular facts and circumstances of this case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
