BOSTON – Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) have filed a series of pretrial motions asking a judge to dismiss some evidence and seeking to have the death penalty declared unconstitutional.
In one motion filed Wednesday, defense attorneys asked a judge to bar prosecutors from arguing that his alleged decision to target the marathon is a factor a jury should consider when weighing whether he should be sentenced to death.
His lawyers filed a separate motion asking the judge to declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional.
Lawyers asked that statements he made to authorities at a hospital after his arrest be thrown out because he was improperly questioned without a lawyer.
They also sought to have evidence collected during searches of his Cambridge home and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth dorm room dismissed.
Prosecutors have not responded.
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