海角大神

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an amateur boxer, a convert to radical Islam, and someone potentially involved in a triple murder. He was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2011 and later spent six months in the southwest Russian regions of Chechnya and Dagestan, where authorities have said they suspect he tried to join Islamist insurgents.聽

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was his younger brother: quiet, impressionable, and easily persuaded. It wasn鈥檛 his idea to bomb the Boston Marathon in 2013. But when Tamerlan approached him for help in carrying out the attack, his love for 鈥� and submissiveness to 鈥� his older brother prevented him from saying no.

That鈥檚 the picture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev鈥檚 legal team has painted of him in the months leading up to his trial, which starts with opening statements聽on Wednesday. His lawyers have made it clear that they will try to show he was heavily influenced, perhaps even intimidated, by his older brother into participating in the bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Legal analysts say that the 鈥渂lood is thicker than water鈥� argument is a crucial component of Mr. Tsarnaev鈥檚 defense. It鈥檚 likely to become even more important if he is convicted, leaving the jury to decide whether to sentence him to death.

鈥淧art of the defense strategy is to humanize him,鈥� says Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston. 鈥淚f his lawyers can succeed in humanizing him, then maybe they can succeed in getting the jury to spare his life.鈥�

Defense attorney David Bruck said in court聽Monday聽that without Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died days after the attack following a gun battle with police, 鈥渢he Boston Marathon bombing would have never occurred.鈥欌��

By portraying Tamerlan as the mastermind and Dzhokhar as his follower, the defense team is trying to counter the motive ascribed by federal prosecutors: that Dzhokhar held radical, anti-American beliefs of his own.

"The government says the motive is extremist, jihadist ideology," Mr. Bruck said, according to media reports. "That opens the door for us to respond that a large part of the motive may have been the defendant鈥檚 love for, admiration of, submissiveness to his older brother.鈥澛�

Martin Weinberg, a prominent Boston defense lawyer not involved in the case, says that 鈥渢he coercive relationship of the dominating brother is paramount to the sentencing narrative鈥� 鈥� along with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev鈥檚 youth, his lack of a criminal record, and his 鈥渆ssentially apolitical鈥� worldview.

鈥淚 think all of those issues will be put to a jury,鈥� Mr. Weinberg adds.

The dynamic between the two siblings is widely expected to be a focal point of the trial, touching on a number of narratives in the brother鈥檚 lives 鈥� from Tamerlan鈥檚 amateur boxing career, radicalization, and possible mental illness to Dzhokhar鈥檚 relatively ordinary childhood in Cambridge, Mass.聽

Among the most grisly incidents involves a triple murder in Waltham, Mass., in 2011. Prosecutors have said that a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev鈥檚 implicated him in the killings.

But with Tamerlan Tsarnaev deceased, witness testimony could be crucial in reconstructing his character and behavioral traits for the jury, says David Hoose, a defense attorney in Northampton, Mass., who specializes in death penalty cases.

鈥淚t would not surprise me if the government has some witnesses who said, 鈥業 knew both of them, and Dzhokhar didn鈥檛 listen to anything [Tamerlan] said,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Hoose says.聽

鈥淵ou will probably see other [witnesses] who said he was terrified of his brother,鈥� Hoose adds. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to be surprised to see people on both sides of that.鈥�

Should the jury find Tsarnaev guilty, the trial will move to a separate sentencing phase, where analysts expect his relationship with his brother to be explored most in depth. To sentence him to death, the same jury would have to agree on that unanimously. Any opposition would result in a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.

For that reason, most legal experts observing the trial expect the sibling dynamic to be brought to the fore on Wednesday. Opening statements are a prime opportunity for both legal teams to present the main themes and arguments of their case. Both sides probably won鈥檛 waste any time in trying to establish their preferred portrayal of Tamerlan and his relationship with Dzhokhar.

According to Hoose, it鈥檚 common for defense teams to 鈥渇ront-load鈥� their case for mitigation.

鈥淚t may be more setting the stage for the penalty phase,鈥� Hoose says, 鈥渋ntroducing evidence through cross-examining government witnesses which might tend to support their theory that [Dzhokhar Tsarnaev] played a lesser role in this than his older brother.鈥�

Weinberg describes the opening statements as 鈥渢he crossroads to the case.鈥� The crossroads could lead in several directions, including one in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is an active participant in the bombings, and another where he is a more passive accomplice.