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                     Boston Marathon Bombing Trial to Begin

   by VOA News

   Boston will revisit some of its worst memories on Wednesday when
   federal prosecutors begin laying out their case against accused Boston
   Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

   Tsarnaev, 21, is charged with killing three people and injuring 264
   with a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs, packed with nails and
   ball bearings, that ripped through thousands of onlookers crowded at
   the race's finish line on April 15, 2013.

   ''He could be sentenced to death if convicted of charges that include
   using a weapon of mass destruction and fatally shooting a police
   officer.

   Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge George O'Toole on Monday that they
   may want to show as evidence autopsy photos of the attack's victims,
   one an 8-year-old boy.

   They also want to play clips from an FBI news conference where
   officials released photos of Tsarnaev and his older brother identifying
   them as suspects and setting off a course of events that led to a
   daylong lockdown of most of the Boston area amid a massive manhunt.

   Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb will lay out the prosecution's
   case in opening statements.

   Tight security

   The trial, which is being held under extremely tight security in U.S.
   District Court in Boston, is expected to be one of the most closely
   watched terror cases in years.

   Defense attorneys, meanwhile, aim to portray Tsarnaev as having been
   under the spell of his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who they contend
   was the mastermind behind the attack. Tamerlan died following an April
   18, 2013, gun battle with police.

   Attorney Judy Clarke, a well-known death penalty opponent, will deliver
   the opening statement for the defense.

   Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges in a 30-count
   indictment, was arrested, seriously injured and hiding in a boat in
   Boston suburb on April 19, several hours after his brother died.

   He is being held in near-solitary confinement in federal prison outside
   Boston, where his visitors and contact with the outside world are
   strictly limited to immediate family and his legal team.

   Prosecutors say the brothers, both of part Chechen descent, built their
   bombs based on instructions in Al-Qaida's English-language magazine
   Inspire but that they appear otherwise to have acted alone.

   An all white jury of eight men and 10 women was sworn in Tuesday,
   capping a two-month selection process delayed by historic snowfall in
   the city and repeated attempts to move the trial elsewhere.

   Trial begins

   District Judge George O'Toole has rejected all attempts to move the
   case, as has the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, paving the way
   for opening statements to begin in the trial at 9:00 a.m. (1400 GMT).

   Some victims and relatives have voiced determination to attend the
   three to four-month trial.

   Tsarnaev supporters are also expected to gather outside, after O'Toole
   refused to ban them, following the defense's claims that wild
   conspiracy theories many of them espouse could taint their client.

   The trial is expected to last three to four months.

   A replaying of some of the graphic evidence of the attack could trigger
   fears among people who lived in the area during the bombing week, said
   Alice LoCicero, a Boston Medical Center psychologist who has researched
   the psychology of terrorist attacks.

   "What people might anticipate is a return of some of the same feelings
   that they had at the time of the initial bombing," LoCicero told
   Reuters. "A lot of fear may be associated with reliving some of those
   events."

   The bombing killed restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, 29; graduate
   student Lingzi Lu, 23, and Martin Richard, 8. Massachusetts Institute
   of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 27, was fatally shot three
   days later.

   Material for this article came from Reuters, AP and AFP.
   WATCH: Related video report by Zlatica Hoke

   ''
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/boston-marathon-bombing-trial-to-begin/2667172.html