As the federal trial for Boston Marathon Bomber Jahar Tsarnaev gets underway, there aren't many who are expecting the outcome to be about guilt or innocence.
Michael Coyne, Dean of the Mass School of Law says, "What this case will really focus on, at the end of the day, is... whether the death penalty should be imposed or not."
With that in mind, most legal experts say Tsarnaev couldn't have a better defense attorney.
San Diego based Judy Clarke has represented Unibomber, Ted Kaczynski, Atlanta Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph and Tucson shooter Jared Loughner.
All those defendants were found guilty, but escaped the death penalty with the help of Clarke, a former public defender known for tackling some of the nation's most high profile, complex and emotional capital cases.
Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil liberties attorney says of Clarke, "She's an expert on death penalty matters. She has enormous skill."
Silverglate says Clarke has become one of the top lawyers in this specialized field through relentless research and preparation and with a fearlessness when it come to facing highly skilled, capital case prosecutors.
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He says, "We all try to be good at what we're doing. Well, she has to be better than good at what she's doing because life and death is at stake.
Coyne further describes the challenges facing Clarke, "You need to personalized the defendant. You need to remove him from the terrorist and extremist acts that are the underlying charges here and what you want the jury to be able to do is connect with him as a person."
Clarke along with Lawyers David Bruck and Miriam Conrad creates representation that renown Boston Criminal Defense Attorney J. Carney describes as the Tsarnaev dream team.
Overseeing it all is US District Judge George O'Toole whose style is described as unflappable, no-nonsense and fair.
He also has experience in high profile cases, including that of Tarek Mehanna, the Sudbury man convicted of supporting Al Quaeda.
