Friend of Boston Marathon bomber asks US Supreme Court to hear his case
A friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is turning to the US Supreme Court in hopes of overturning his conviction for lying to the FBI following the April 2013 bombing that killed three people and wounded 260 others.
Robel Phillipos, 24, met Tsarnaev when both were students at UMass-Dartmouth and was questioned by the FBI after Tsarnaev, and his brother, Tamerlan, were identified as the persons responsible for the terrorist bombing near the finish line on April 15, 2013.
Phillipos had initially denied to an FBI agent that he went to Tsarnaev’s dorm room at the school three days after the bombing after he recognized Tsarnaev in a photo of the bombing suspects that was released by the FBI. He also denied going there with two other friends, and said he did not see those two friends go into the dorm room and remove a backpack.
But he later confessed that he had lied and was convicted by a jury in US District Court in Boston. Phillipos, who had no prior criminal history, was sentenced to serve three years in prison and is scheduled to be released next February, according to the US Bureau of Prisons. Phillipos is serving his sentence at a minimum security prison in Pennsylvania.
The legal arguments Phillipos’ attorney, Derege B. Demissie, will raise before the nation’s highest court have not been revealed. Demissie filed what is called a petition for certiorari with the court on Friday, and federal prosecutors have until Dec. 4 to file their answer.
But when the Cambridge’s man’s conviction was challenged before the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the regional federal appellate court, defense lawyers argued his trial was unfair because the trial judge refused to review whether his statements to the FBI were voluntary.
The trial judge ruled that Phillipos would have to testify in order for the issue to be explored, a decision the appellate court concluded was legally justified as they upheld his conviction.
Tsarnaev, 24, the only person to be charged with carrying out the Marathon bombing, was sentenced to death in 2015. He is appealing his sentence. His brother, Tamerlan, was killed during a confrontation with police in Watertown.
The Supreme Court can choose not to review the case.
