Boston bombing suspect's lawyers invoke Oklahoma City bombing case

BOSTON -- Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are again drawing parallels between the media coverage of their client's case to the coverage received by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in an effort to have the trial moved out of Massachusetts.

In a filing Monday, defense attorneys wrote that because "the crimes charged inflicted actual injury on the entire local population" and "greater Boston, was itself, a victim," the case is similar to the McVeigh case.

McVeigh's 1997 trial was moved to Denver.

Monday's motion was in response to the prosecution's opposition to the defense's change-of-venue request.

A judge rejected Tsarnaev's first request in September to move the trial.

Jury selection in Tsarnaev's trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 5. He has pleaded not guilty.

Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 2013 marathon. Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges, faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted.

Tsarnaev returned to court Thursday for the first time since he was arraigned in July 2013, and he received a shout of encouragement from the mother-in-law of a man who was shot and killed while being questioned by law enforcement after the bombings.

The mother-in-law of Ibragim Todashev shouted at Tsarnaev in Russian in the courtroom. Elena Teyer says she told him: "We prayed for you. Be strong, my son. We know you are innocent."

Later, in English, she yelled to the law enforcement officers escorting her out of the room: "Stop killing innocent people. Stop killing innocent boys."

WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reported that Tsarnaev was "very much alert" during the hearing.