Boston Marathon Bombing trial underway. Death penalty sought.

The 2nd big trail of 2015 is now well underway.  The surviving brother in the Boston Marathon bombing, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, faces the death penalty.  A defense request for the a change of venue away from Boston was denied.  This is questionable given the number of Bostonians killed, (3) hurt (264, many seriously), outraged, and who followed the manhunt after the bombing with great intensity.  Nonetheless, a jury was seated. This will obviously be a potential point for appeal. 
The defense has conceded guilt.  As in many capital cases, the real issue is the penalty, not guilt or innocence. The defense theory is that Dzokhar was a lost teenager who fell under the spell of his evil, radical, brother.  This mitigation-of-punishment theory is sometimes referred to as the "Svenagali Defense."  This is reminiscent of the Beltway sniper case where the teenage accomplice, Lee Malvo, was able to avoid the death penalty. 
 "Since 1988, of the cases in which juries in federal death penalty trials reached the point of choosing between life and death, they have opted for life 66 percent of the time, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project."  It appears that federal juries are capable of lenience.

 The defense offered to plead guilty if life was the sentence, but the prosecution refused to go along.
While this case is clearly not as horrific and the Oklahoma city bombing (Timothy McVea) odds are,  however, that he will get the death penalty.  Stay tuned.