The New York Times: Tsarnaev may survive if deals with inquiry

The prosecutor's demand to apply death penalty to Johar Tsarnaev, a native of Chechnya, accused of committing a terror act in Boston, may change, if Tsarnaev agrees to deal with the investigation, The New York Times writes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Johar Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen, living in the USA, is accused of committing, together with his brother Tamerlan, who died at detention, an explosion in Boston on April 15, 2013, which killed three persons and wounded at least 282 others. Johar refuses to plead guilty.

Officially US prosecutors are forbidden to demand the death penalty with the aim to force the defendant to a plea deal, but in almost half of the cases, the prosecutors, who had applied for the capital punishment, later withdrew their claim. Typically, this occurs when the defendant pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with the investigation, writes The New York Times.

Among Tsarnaev's advocates we see Judy Clark, one of the leading US lawyers, experienced in dealing with death penalty cases.

If the demand of the death penalty is not recalled, the trial will take place in two stages: first, the court should decide whether Tsarnaev is guilty or innocent; then, the issue of death penalty will be put before the jury.