A federal judge on Wednesday denied Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 's bid to move the location of his upcoming trial , even while moving back its scheduled start date . Explaining his decision to have a jury weigh Tsarnaev 's fate near where the bombings and subsequent violent incidents with police occurred , U.S. District Judge George O'Toole said , `` Although the media coverage in this case has been extensive , at this stage the defendant has failed to show that it has so inflamed and pervasively prejudiced the pool that a fair and impartial jury can not be impaneled in the ( eastern division of the District of Massachusetts ) . '' O'Toole 's ruling means that the trial in one of the most scarring episodes in Boston history will stay in Boston . With his older brother Tamerlan , Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is accused of planting two explosives hidden inside backpacks on April 15 , 2013 , along downtown Boston 's busy Boylston Street near the marathon 's finish line . The bombs exploded 12 seconds apart , killing 8-year-old Martin Richard , 29-year-old Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu , a Boston University graduate student from China , and injuring more than 200 others . Mourning , resolve and quest for answers after deadly bombs . Three days later , a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer named Sean Collier was shot and killed on campus -- allegedly by the bombing suspects . Then , early on April 19 , authorities say the Tsarnaev brothers hijacked a car in nearby Cambridge , then exchanged gunfire and thew explosives out the window when police began to chase them . Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in that exchange . His younger brother was n't found until the next day , bloodied and in a boat parked in a Watertown , Massachusetts , backyard . The marathon bombings and subsequent manhunt spurred intense media coverage in Massachusetts and beyond . `` Boston Strong '' became an often repeated mantra in the region as locals rallied in support of one another and in opposition to those behind the violence . The attention spurred Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to ask for his trial to be moved out of Massachusetts , his lawyers arguing `` that pretrial publicity and public sentiment '' jeopardized his opportunity for a fair trial . O'Toole shot down the defense case on several grounds , including the argument that 12 impartial jurors could n't be found in the area . He noted that Massachusetts ' eastern federal district has about 5 million people . `` It stretches the imagination to suggest that an impartial jury can not be successfully selected from this large pool of potential jurors , '' the judge wrote . It 's not like only Massachusetts residents know about this case , he added . For a time , this was a huge international story -- meaning that people from coast-to-coast , and not just around Boston , might have formed opinions about it he said . `` It is doubtful whether a jury could be selected anywhere in the country whose members were wholly unaware of the marathon bombings , '' O'Toole said . Tsarnaev faces more than 30 federal charges tied to the entire episode , including using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death . Bomb suspect pleads not guilty . Federal prosecutors announced earlier this year that they will seek the death penalty against him , arguing he acted in `` an especially heinous , cruel and depraved manner '' and lacks remorse . While Tsarnaev was n't able to move his trial location , he did win -- at least partially -- in one regard Wednesday : His trial date has been delayed . The defense had asked that the trial be pushed back from November 3 to September 1 , 2015 , due to the large volume of information -- or `` discovery '' -- in the case . O'Toole delayed the trial until January 5 , 2015 , not long after the final pretrial conference hearing set for December 18 .
Lingzi Lu is accused in the Massachusetts Marathon bombing , killing police officer . He wants to move the trial out of Boston , saying he ca n't get a fair trial there . A judge denies his request , saying an `` impartial jury '' can be impaneled in the area . Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 's 's trial is being delayed , though , until April 19 .