Marathon Bombing Suspect Faces First Court Appearance

12:18

July 10, 2013

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is pictured at his 2011 graduation from Cambridge Rindge and Latin, a public high school in Cambridge, Mass. (Courtesy: Robin Young/Here & Now)

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, will appear in court in Boston on Wednesday afternoon to be arraigned on 30 federal charges in connection with the April 15th bombings at the Boston Marathon.

He's charged with using a weapon of mass destruction in the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260. Tsarnaev is also accused of killing an MIT police officer on April 19th.

Seventeen of the charges could result in the death penalty if Tsarnaev is convicted.

Victims and victims' family members are expected to be in the courtroom.

Tsarnaev is accused of carrying out the attack with his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a confrontation with police on April 19, hours before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered hiding out inside a boat in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.

Guest:

Deborah Becker, reporter for WBUR in Boston. She tweets @wburdebbecker.
Alan Dershowitz, author and professor at Harvard Law School. He tweets @AlanDersh.

This segment aired on July 10, 2013.

Boston Marathon bombing