Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces death penalty if convicted of planting bombs during Boston Marathon. (Associated Press)
Opening arguments begin on Wednesday in the trial of the 21-year-old man accused in the worst attack on US soil since the September 11 strikes: the Boston Marathon bombings nearly two years ago.
Kyrgyzstan-born US Muslim Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces the death penalty if convicted of bombing Boston's signature race, killing three people and wounding 264, on April 15, 2013.
It is one of the most anticipated trials in the United States since Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, and is expected to arouse strong emotions in Boston.
It follows a two-month jury selection process delayed by ferocious snowstorms and attempts from the defense to move the trial outside the city of 645,000, arguing it would be impossible to find an impartial jury.
District Judge George O'Toole, who will preside over the trial, has already rejected three attempts to move the case and Friday, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit also threw out the request.
In a last-ditch attempt, considered largely procedural, the defense filed a fourth demand for a change of venue late Monday.
O'Toole initially expected opening arguments to begin January 26, but the process of whittling down more than 1,300 candidates to a 12-person jury with six alternates is expected to be approved only on Tuesday.
The trial is expected to incite strong emotions.
More than a dozen of the wounded lost limbs, and an eight-year-old child was among those who were killed.
Some victims and their relatives are expected to attend. And Tsarnaev supporters who subscribe to a multitude of conspiracy theories are also expected to gather outside court.
O'Toole refused a request from the defense to ban protesters on the grounds that Tsarnaev will be tainted by their inflammatory opinions.
The defendant has been held in near-solitary confinement in federal prison outside Boston. Flanked by his lawyers, he has listened attentively and at times appeared tense during jury selection.
He pleads not guilty to 30 federal charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
He and his older brother Tamerlan, 26, both of part Chechen descent, are accused of carrying out the bombings alone, without the backing of a terror group. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police four days after the attack.
Motives scrawled on boatThe brothers allegedly planted two pressure cooker bombs in backpacks near the finish line of the marathon, which detonated 12 seconds apart as thousands of people attended the race.
A frantic manhunt ensued and Dzhokhar was eventually discovered, seriously injured and hiding in a boat in Boston suburb on April 19, several hours after his brother died.
He allegedly scrawled a rambling explanation of his motives on an interior panel of the boat, criticizing the US government over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Now, I don't like killing innocent people, it is forbidden in Islam, but ... stop killing our innocent people, and we will stop," the message read.
The trial is expected to last three or four months, essentially suspending normal life for the jurors who are selected.
Tsarnaev moved to the United States when he was eight years old and became a naturalized American citizen in 2012.
He is being represented by a crack team of lawyers, including defense attorney Judy Clarke, who has saved some of America's most notorious convicts from death row.
Among them are Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks; and Jared Loughner, who shot dead six people and seriously wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in 2011.
Tsarnaev's family, which lives in Russia, has kept a low profile since an emotional press conference just after the bombing.
His mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva accused the US security services of needlessly killing Tamerlan while trying to capture him.
Both parents have stressed their sons' innocence and lamented ever going to the United States.