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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

USA: Will Tsarnaev face death? Decision expected in early 2014

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty against accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by Jan. 31, 2014, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman told Crimesider.

Klieman said that if the government decides to pursue the death penalty, the defense's objective will be to get a plea to life imprisonment.

"This U.S. Attorney's Office is going to be particularly sensitive to the desires of the victims," Klieman said. "There are many victims in this case who will feel that [Tsarnaev] should get death; there are other victims in this case who will feel, for a variety of reasons... that he should get life."

Klieman said if there isn't a guilty plea in the case, the trial is likely to last 9 months.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to a 30-count federal indictment that includes charges of using a weapon of mass destruction.

Authorities say Tsarnaev, 20, and his brother Tamerlan, 26, built 2 pressure-cooker bombs and placed them near the Marathon finish line. The April 15, 2013, explosions killed 3 people and wounded more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police several days after the bombings.

Source: CBS news, January 1, 2014
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