Where is bomber now

Observers have been watching whether the Biden administration would stop pursuing the death penalty for Tsarnaev and agree to life in prison. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind the attack.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police a few days after the bombing. Dzhokar Tsarnaev is now behind bars at a high-security supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. The department in a page brief filed late on Monday argued that a lower court wrongly overturned Tsarnaev's death sentence and ordered a new trial to determine what sentence he deserved for carrying out with his older brother the attack that killed three people and wounded more than others.

The filing marked the latest deviation between the policy views of Biden, a Democrat who has said he wants to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and the Justice Department, whose independence he has vowed to promote. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said the Justice Department "has independence regarding such decisions," but added that Biden believes the federal government should not carry out executions.

In overturning Tsarnaev's death sentence, the Boston-based 1st U. Circuit Court of Appeals in July ruled that the trial judge "fell short" in screening jurors for potential bias following pervasive news coverage of the bombing. Supreme Court will consider on Wednesday when the justices hear the U. But for me, I wanted it. Borgard, who also attended the trial, is against executions of anyone. The Supreme Court is set to hear the federal government's appeal of a lower court ruling overturning Tsarnaev's death sentence and requiring a new trial to determine whether he should get life in prison instead.

Two ethnic Chechen brothers carried out one of the most shocking attacks on U. Tsarnaev, who is 28 now and was 19 at the time, and his older brother Tamerlan detonated two homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon's finish line on April 15, After four days in hiding in the Boston area, the brothers tried to flee, killing Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with police that ended when his younger brother ran him over with a stolen car. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said at the time "unique security management requirements" caused the agency to place Tsarnaev in Colorado instead of United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana, where male death-row inmates are normally held.

The Boston Marathon bombing took place on April 15, Tsarnaev, now 27, was convicted of dozens of crimes in the terror attack that left three people dead and injured more than others, including 17 who lost limbs. Tsarnaev was convicted of joining his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in planting two pressure-cooker bombs at the crowded finish line of the Boston Marathon. MIT campus police officer, Sean Collier, 26, was fatally shot in a shoot-out with the brothers days later that also left Tamerlan dead.