Prosecutors to seek death penalty for Boston bombing suspect

BOSTON, Mass. — Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing.

The final decision was made by Attorney General Eric Holder and was announced Thursday. The twin blasts in April killed three people and wounded more than 260 in one of the most prominent terrorist attacks in the U.S since 9/11.

Prosecutors allege that the 20-year-old Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the Boston area for about a decade, planted two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police.

Seventeen of 30 charges against Tsarnaev carry the possibility of the death penalty, including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.