By Lucia Leal
Washington, Jan 5 (EFE).- The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused in the Boston marathon bombing which left three dead and over 260 hurt in April 2013, is to begin Monday with the jury selection process and could result in a death penalty if he is proven guilty.
Over a year and a half after the worst attack on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks and after several attempts by the defense team to delay the trial, Boston gets ready to begin a trial which would evoke strong emotions among residents who lived through the day of the tragedy in the city.
"We really are going to be reliving everything," Heather Abbott, 40, who lost her left leg in the attack, told the Boston Globe newspaper Sunday.
Like her, there are many other victims hoping that the trial of Tsarnaev, 21, comes to an end as soon as possible, while some of them unreservedly support the death penalty.
Tsarnaev, kept in solitary confinement at a prison near a military base in Boston, faces 30 charges for having made and placed two bombs which unleashed chaos during the marathon.
The accused, a U.S. citizen born in Russia's Dagestan region, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include using a weapon of mass destruction and four murders.
Apart from the three deaths in the bombings, he is accused of killing a security officer during his escape, which also led to the death of his elder brother, Tamerlan.
The U.S. Justice Department had authorized the District Attorney's Office about a year ago to seek the death penalty for the accused.
However, there is the possibility of them asking for life imprisonment is there is an agreement with the defense towards the end of the trial, which could last about three to five months, according to experts.
The first part of the proceedings is to involve selecting 12 jury members and six substitutes from a total of 1,200 people shortlisted, a process which could take up a few weeks.
"This jury selection process is going to be like very few others in a federal criminal case," former federal prosecutor Jeremy Sternberg told the USA Today daily.
The difficulty lies in selecting members who would be able analyze the proceedings impartially, especially in a city that lived through the events of the tragedy.
It is also necessary, according to experts, to have jury members who are not opposed to the death penalty and would consider it as an option if the proceedings call for it.
The death penalty is illegal in Massachusetts but it could be applied in this case because Tsarnaev is facing federal charges.
The defennse team has unsuccessfully sought on various occasions for the trial to be held outside Boston, arguing that it would be impossible to conduct a fair trial in the same city where the blasts took place.
If there is no extra-judicial agreement between the prosecution and the defense, the trial would proceed in two phases.
The first phase would determine if Tsarnaev is guilty or innocent, while the second phase would decide whether he should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment if found guilty.