Senate Dems cleared way for Boston Bomber, other convicted murderers to receive stimulus checks

Senate Democrats cleared the way for convicted murderers like Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to receive stimulus checks when they passed the American Rescue Plan of 2021 last March without a GOP amendment that would have blocked inmates from receiving the checks.

Tsarnaev has been ordered by prosecutors to return a $1,400 COVID-19 relief payment he received last summer along with other money sent to him, according to a court filing Wednesday.

Tsarnaev so far has only paid $2,202.03 of the more than $101 million in restitution owed to his victims. The filing said the $1,400 in COVID-19 relief money should instead be used as restitution.

Tsarnaev was sentenced to death two years after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which left three people dead and hundreds hurt. The death sentence was overturned in 2020 after a court ruled that a trial judge erred by excluding some evidence. An appeal to reinstate his death sentence is before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., warned in March that convicts like Tsarnaev would benefit from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which included $1,400 stimulus checks for individuals making less than $75,000. – READ MORE