The process to select the jury in the trial of the man accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon Bombings has started in Boston.
1,200 people have been summoned to appear over the next three days to be considered as potential jurors.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, faces 30 charges relating to the bombings which killed three people and injured 260 others.
He is also charged with the killing of an MIT police officer and with other offences in the days following the bombings.
Judge George O'Toole said the trial proper will begin "on or about" Monday 26 January, and is expected to last three to four months.
Mr Tsarnaev appeared before the jury this morning, wearing a black shirt, black jumper and cream-coloured slacks.
His hair is long and curly and he has a beard on the base of his chin.
Judge O'Toole will address the potential jurors in groups of 200-250, twice a day for the next three days.
He is giving each group the same specific instructions, at which point they will fill out a questionnaire.
The results of the questionnaire will determine whether they proceed to the next phase of selection.
Upon completion of the form, the jurors will be given a special telephone number to call next week.
During the first jury session this morning, Judge O'Toole said that this case differed from other criminal cases in "a significant way", in that if the defendant is convicted then the jury would have to decide whether to sentence him to death or to give him life in prison without any possibility of release.
This was different from many other criminal cases, he said, in that it is usually the presiding judge that decides the sentence.
The judge warned the prospective jurors not to discuss the case with anyone from now on, and to avoid any news reports of the proceedings, including any discussions in social media such as Facebook or Twitter.
He also ordered them not to do any online research through Google or otherwise of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or anyone else involved in the case, or the background to it.
He urged the potential jurors to serve fairly and impartially and said that the founding fathers of the US constitution had committed the responsibility to find people guilty or innocent to the people, "not to judges, not to the press, not to public opinion and not to the mob".
Lawyers for Mr Tsarnaev have previously petitioned the court to have the trial moved out of Boston, claiming that it would be impossible to find a fair and impartial jury in the city.
Addressing the prospective jurors today Judge O'Toole said that the trial had attracted a great deal of publicity and would continue to do so, and the fact that they had previously heard details of the case did not preclude them from serving, but that they must commit to decide the case purely on what they heard inside the court.
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