Prosecutors have said Tsarnaev scrawled the motive for the attack inside the boat. They say he referred to U.S. wars in Muslim countries and wrote, among other things, "Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop."

During a final pretrial hearing Monday in the federal death penalty case, Tsarnaev attorney William Fick objected to the plan to bring pieces of the boat to court and suggested instead that the boat be brought to the courthouse so the jury can see the entire boat. He argued that the jury would be seeing the writing out of context if the panels were brought into the courtroom.

To see the whole boat would allow the jury to imagine Tsarnaev lying inside "much like someone lying in a crypt making those writings," Fick said.

Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, had been killed hours earlier during a shootout with police, but Tsarnaev escaped and was captured '€” bloodied and wounded '€” inside the boat parked in a backyard in suburban Watertown.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb argued that it would be impractical to bring the entire boat to the courthouse and that there are photographs of it that can be shown to the jury. He suggested that the defense wants the jury to see the boat '€”which contains bullet holes, blood stains and broken glass '€” to gain sympathy for Tsarnaev.

Tsarnaev's lawyers also asked Judge George O'Toole Jr. to exclude autopsy photos of the three people killed in the bombings. More than 260 people were hurt.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadine Pellegrini said prosecutors have to prove that the victims died from the use of a weapon of mass destruction, which is among the charges against Tsarnaev. She said the full-body autopsy photos are necessary because they show all the wounds.

The judge did not immediately rule on the motions.

The defense later filed a fourth motion to move the trial, asking the court to stop jury selection, which is expected to be completed Tuesday. The lawyers acknowledged their three earlier requests have been denied but said they want to complete the record of their opposition now that 75 people have been potentially qualified.

The defense said 48 of those qualified said on their questionnaires they believe Tsarnaev is guilty and/or have connections to the marathon bombing. Prosecutors countered the defense characterization of the questionnaire data was "erroneous" and said many of the connections jurors listed were trivial.

Tsarnaev's lawyers made it clear during the hearing that they will portray Tsarnaev as an adoring younger brother who was coerced by his older brother into participating in the deadly 2013 attack.

Although his lawyers had indicated they planned to argue that Dzhokhar, then 19, was influenced by Tamerlan, then 26, they used their strongest language to date to describe how they will depict the brothers' relationship and each of their roles in the attack.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty argued that the defense plans to try to include mitigating evidence during the guilt phase of the trial, when that should be reserved for the second phase of the trial '€” known as the penalty phase '€” when the jury will be asked to decide Tsarnaev's punishment: life in prison or the death penalty.

Opening statements in Tsarnaev's trial are scheduled for Wednesday. The trial is expected to last three to four months. (***)

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