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Boston Bomber Trial Begins, Death Penalty Possible

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The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, is set to begin Monday.

Jurors will decide whether Tsarnaev planned and carried out the twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 near the finish line of the marathon in April 2013.

After a manhunt that lasted for days, Tsarnaev was found wounded and hiding in a boat.

His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed after what officials say was a prolonged shootout with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev now faces the death penalty.

Jurors will be selected from a pool of 1,200 people and only those willing to impose a death sentence can be chosen.

Tsarnaev's lawyers tried in vain for months to get the trial moved, arguing the Boston jury pool was tainted because of the number of locals with connections to the race.

"It will bring up a lot of what happened two years ago and a lot of emotions," said Heather Abbott, a Rhode Island resident who lost her part of her left leg in the bombing.

"They tried to destroy people and their spirits," survivor Rebekah DiMartino said. "All this has done is make me want to change the world."

If Tsarnaev is found guilty, there will be a separate trial to decide whether he should be put to death.

Prosecutors say the Muslim siblings, ethnic Chechens who had lived in the United States for about a decade, carried out the bombings as retaliation for U.S. actions in Islamic countries.

But those U.S. actions came after a global spike in Islamic terrorism. And now even the president of Egypt says Islam is in need of a religious revolution.

In his New Year’s Day address to Islamic scholars in Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi criticized Muslim teaching that has led to a plague of worldwide terrorism.

He said it’s caused "the entire 'Ummah,' or Muslim world, to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world...and is antagonizing the entire world."

He added, "We are in need of a religious revolution" because "the Muslim Ummah is being destroyed."

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About The Author

Dale
Hurd

Dale Hurd utilizes his four decades of experience to provide cutting-edge analysis of the most important events affecting our world. Since joining CBN News, Dale has reported extensively from Europe, China, Russia, and South America. His reports have been used or cited by NBC News, Fox News, and numerous news websites. Dale was credited with “changing the political culture in France” through his groundbreaking coverage of the rise of militant Islam in that nation. His stories garnered millions of views in Europe on controversial topics ignored by the European media. Dale has also covered the