Lawyers representing accused Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev presented arguments before a federal appeals court on Thursday to move the high profile case out of Massachusetts in order to give him a fair trial.

The 21-year-old suspected terrorist has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges connected to the explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, which killed three people and injured 264 others. In addition to planting two bombs at the race, prosecutors say that he and his now deceased brother, Tamerlan, also fatally shot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer three days later. If found guilty, Tsarnaev faces the death penalty.

Earlier this year, lawyers began sorting through hundreds of potential jurors on Jan. 5. However, the process of selecting a panel of 18 people, which includes 12 jurors and six alternates, is taking longer than the district court had expected since many candidates have confessed that they already hold a bias against the suspect, reports Reuters.

As a result, defense attorneys continue to push for the trial to be moved outside of Boston, where the attack took place, in order to find an unbiased panel of jurors. They argue that they are unable to assemble an impartial jury due to "saturation publicity" about the case in addition to the many state residents who were personally affected by the 2013 bombing.

The local jury pool is "connected to the case in many ways" and cannot be counted on to be fair, said federal public defender Judith Mizner in arguments before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reports the Associated Press.

"This attack was viewed as an attack on the marathon itself ... and an attack on the city of Boston," Mizner added.

Mizner pointed out that there is continual media coverage of the marathon and the recovery of the victims.

Tsarnaev's lawyers also made note that 68 percent of the 1,373 prospective jurors who filled out questionnaires already believe that Tsarnaev is guilty.

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb argued that the presiding judge in the case has been weeding out people who have preconcieved notions about Tsarnaev. He added that people who have strong opinions about Tsarnaev have "unhesitatingly admitted them" during the interview process, leading him to conclude that the process is working, reports the New York Times.

Plus, the judge has already found 61 people he believes qualify to be impartial jurors, he said.

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