Judge to Tsarnaev: No New Trial

A federal judge on Friday rejected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's bid for a new trial and ordered him to pay victims of the deadly attack more than $101 million in restitution. The restitution order, issued by Judge George O'Toole Jr., is seen as largely symbolic because Tsarnaev is in federal prison and has no ability to pay. Tsarnaev, 22, was convicted and sentenced to death last year in the 2013 attack. The judge, in his order denying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a new trial, noted that he and a federal appeals court had previously rejected arguments from Tsarnaev's lawyers that he could not receive a fair trial in Boston, where many people knew the victims or had connections to the marathon.

The judge said the victims, the trial and other marathon-related events also were covered widely by national and international news organizations. "This was not a crime that was unknown outside of Boston," he wrote in his order. The judge also rejected Tsarnaev's renewed challenge to the constitutionality of the federal death penalty. Liz Norden, the mother of two men who each lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings, said she was pleased the judge denied Tsarnaev's request for a new trial. "I personally think he did get a fair trial," she said. "He said he did it. He admitted to it. I don't know why they would even consider that what he got was not deserving." (More Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stories.)