Federal prosecutors on Wednesday urged a judge to reject a request from lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to delay the start of the Boston Marathon bombing trial until September.
Defense lawyers said earlier this week that the government had so many names on its proposed witness list that it was impossible to delve into their backgrounds in time for the trial, scheduled now to begin in January.
But the government says that concern is exaggerated.
The government says the vast majority of those on the list are "law enforcement agents involved in the collection, photographing, or chain of custody of evidence." The government says if offered to remove them from the list if the defense lawyers would stipulate that there was no need for their testimony.
Tsarnaev, 21, faces 30 federal counts in the April 2013 attack on the marathon, which left three people dead and more than 260 injured. He could get the death penalty if convicted.
