View of death penalty is key criteria in jury selection for Tsarnaev case – Part 2

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  For more on today's proceedings and the mood in the city of Boston, we are joined by Phillip Martin. He's senior investigative reporter for WGBH-FM public radio. He was at the courthouse today.

  Phillip Martin, thank you for being with us.

  First of all, tell us about the scene where you were.

• PHILLIP MARTIN, WGBH-FM:

  Well, I was with other journalists today watching through a glass plate window — a glass-paned window, a huge window, watching about 250 jurors starting at 9:00 this morning, and then again at 1:00 this afternoon. These are potential jurors, I should say.

  They're being selected from throughout Massachusetts to sit potentially on the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the U.S. courthouse right behind me, in fact.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  That's a lot of people to talk to. How is the judge and the lawyers, how are they going about winnowing that down? What kinds of questions are being asked?

• PHILLIP MARTIN:

  You asked the right question.

  One question that will winnow this down tremendously is whether or not the juror, whether or not he or she supports — would consider the death penalty if the defendant is found guilty. If you answer no to that question, you are immediately dismissed from the jury pool. You are excused from the jury pool, because, as you know, this is a death penalty trial. And if you answer no to that question, the prosecution — the prosecutors will just go on.

  And so other questions asked, if you know any of the potential witnesses. There's a list of the witnesses that the potential jurors see. It's for their eyes only. We weren't allowed to see the questionnaire. And if they know some of the witnesses on this list, it's not clear how the judge will act or — and what the prosecution and the defense will say under those circumstances.

  But it's thought that it's preferable, of course, that they not know any of those witnesses.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  I was also reading that the judge is saying to the potential jurors not to read anything or do any research about this case.

  But I also want to ask you about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev himself. He is in the courtroom. What is he doing during all this?

• PHILLIP MARTIN:

  Well, you know, this is — under any other circumstances, you would look at this young man as what he was at one point, a college student. That's what he looked like.

  But the — but in the background, of course, are the bombings, the twin bombings of April 2013. So you see a young man with a scruffy beard wearing a black sweater and khaki pants, not a suit, not a tie. He looks like a college student. And throughout the proceedings, as the jurors — potential jurors, I should say, were being questioned, he was looking straight ahead.

  He seemed to look down only when Judge O'Toole mentioned that the death penalty would be considered under — in this case. But for the most part, he seemed, I wouldn't say confidant and I wouldn't say aloof. He seemed as though he was simply accepting what was taking place and he was staring straight ahead.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Phillip Martin, just finally, what are people in Boston saying about this? Is there a sense of anxiety about the trial? We just heard a few moments ago one resident saying they just wanted to get this over with.

• PHILLIP MARTIN:

  You're going to hear that from quite a few people, but there's a sort of sense that this had the take place. This was inevitable.

  It had been put off for some time now. It was originally supposed to take place in November. But in talking with, for example, a manager at Boston Marathon Sports, which — windows were blown out during the — by one of the bombs, he simply said that he would like to focus on the survivors and the victims, rather than on the alleged suspect — I mean, on the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

  He said his sympathy is for the victims of this case. He would like it to be over with, but, at the same time, he is resigned to the fact that this is going to happen, it took place in Boston, and this is where it's going to end.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Phillip Martin with WGBH Radio, we thank you.

• PHILLIP MARTIN:

  Thank you, Judy.