U.S. appeals court to hear arguments on moving Boston bombing trial

By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday said it would hear arguments on whether to move the trial of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect out of the city that was the site of the largest mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The appeals court's decision to hear arguments on Feb. 19 comes after a district court judge three times rejected pleas by defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's attorneys to move the trial. Defense attorneys contend too many people in the Boston area had a direct connection to the event to empanel an impartial jury. Three people were killed and 264 injured when two homemade bombs went off at the race's crowded finish line on April 15, 2013.

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