Selection of bomb jurors gets underway.

Byline: Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Katharine Q. Seelye

BOSTON -- "The name of the case is the United States vs. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.''

With those words, the presiding judge, George A. O'Toole Jr. of U.S. District Court, began on Monday the process of selecting a jury in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of planting bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

O'Toole warned the first group of more than 200 potential jurors not to search online or do any other research about the case, and told them that if Tsarnaev were convicted on the most serious charges, they would have to decide whether he is imprisoned for life or executed.

"Mr. Tsarnaev is accused of crimes potentially punishable by a sentence of death,'' O'Toole told the prospective jurors. If he is convicted of the crimes, the judge added, "it is the responsibility of the jury rather than the judge to decide whether Mr. Tsarnaev is sentenced to death.''

The 1,200 potential jurors are all from the eastern half of Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and Nantucket, almost four hours away with a ferry ride. Because of the anticipated difficulties in picking a jury, this is the largest jury pool that the court here has summoned recently.

The 12 jurors and six alternates who are selected will be part of one of the most high-profile trials in American history as they weigh evidence in the worst terrorist attack in this country since Sept. 11, 2001.

The trial -- a federal death penalty case in a state that has abolished the death penalty -- could last four months. Everyone picked for the jury must be willing to impose the death penalty, and defense lawyers have complained that this stacks the deck against their clients, but being "death qualified'' is the law.

Tsarnaev, 21, dressed in a dark shirt and light-colored pants, his thick black hair and goatee longer than at his last court appearance three weeks ago, walked into the large jury assembly room at the federal courthouse here and sat down at a table between two of his lawyers, Judy Clarke and Miriam Conrad, that faced prospective jurors. Prosecutors sat at another table nearby.

Tsarnaev was not handcuffed, but he kept his hands together when he briefly stood, along with his lawyers, as the judge introduced them to the potential jurors.

He has pleaded not guilty to a 30-count indictment against him, which includes conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death; 17 of the...