Middlesex District Attorney Wants To Try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev In State Court

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev addresses the court on June 24, 2015. Sketch by Jane Flavell Collins/AP

Even though he is sitting in a sterile concrete box in a Colorado prison that is quite possibly the most strictly controlled building in the country, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan wants to bring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev back to Massachusetts.

Ryan is in discussions with the federal government about bringing Tsarnaev back to Massachusetts in order to stand trial for the death of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier.

“When you come into Middlesex County and execute a police officer in the performance of his duties and assault other officers attempting to effect his capture, it is appropriate you should come back to Middlesex County to stand trial for that offense,” Ryan said in a statement.

The move is unusual not only because Tsarnaev is facing the death penalty but because he was convicted on all charges or the events around the Boston Marathon bombing.

Ryan has has raised the possibility of bringing state charges against Tsarnaev since October 2013 when the state first took out a warrant on him. In March of 2015 he was formally indicted by a state grand jury for the murder of Collier.

The jury sentenced Tsarnaev to death for the bombing outside The Forum restaurant not for the shooting of Collier or the bombing outside Marathon sports.