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The $1,400 COVID-19 stimulus payment received by convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as well as other funds in Tsarnaev's account, will be put toward the millions of dollars owed to the victims of the 2013 incident.
A filing on Wednesday (January 5) obtained by Boston.com states that the U.S. attorney's office asked the judge to order the federal Bureau of Prisons to turn the tens of thousands deposited into Tsarnaev's trust fund over to the Clerk of the Court "as payment towards his outstanding criminal monetary penalties, including unpaid special assessment and restitution.”
The 28-year-old received a $1,400 COVID-19 relief payment on June 22, 2021, as was the case with other convicted inmates, while having also received several other deposits including $11,230 from the office of federal defenders in New York; $2,500 from an individual in Indianapolis; $1,450 from someone in Bloomfield, New Jersey; and $950 from an individual in Frederick, Maryland, according to the filing on Wednesday via NBC News.
Additionally, the filing revealed Tsarnaev also received a total of $3,486.60 from 32 unidentified people, according to the filing.
The convict is allowed to keep money in his trust fund to purchase clothing, school books and other items inside the prison, but prosecutors confirmed none of the currency was put toward that or paying outstanding fees to victims of the bombing.
Tsarnaev is serving a life sentence at the supermax Federal Correctional Complex Florence after being convicted six years ago for an incident killed three people and injured more than 260 after two pressure cooker bombs were set off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The 28-year-old's older brother, Tamerlan, who was also a suspect in the bombing, was killed during a shooting with police three days later.
Tsarnaev was convicted and initially sentenced to death, but the death sentence was overturned in July 2020 after a three-judge panel ruled that the trial judge "fell short" while screening the jury for potential biases, a decision that has since been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last January, Tsarnaev reportedly sued the federal government for $250,000 over what he refers to as "discriminatory" prison treatment.