Prosecutors in the Boston Marathon bomber trial accused the defense team of purposely trying to "encourage" a hung jury during the jury selection process on Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb claimed that defense lawyer David Bruck was asking a "wholly inappropriate" question while he was probing a potential juror on whether he would be influenced by the opinions of other jurors, reports the Associated Press.

According to Weinreb, Bruck's question was presented in the form of an "instruction" that no juror could change another juror's view about whether the death penalty would be an appropriate punishment.

However, Bruck countered that he was merely asking the juror if he understood that all jurors have to make their own decisions and that everyone's opinions should be respected.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges connected to the explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing three people and injuring 264 others. In addition to planting two bombs at the race, prosecutors say that the 21-year-old suspected terrorist and his now deceased brother, Tamerlan, also fatally shot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer three days later. Tamerlan, 26, was then killed in a gun battle with police that same day.

Lawyers began sorting through about 1,200 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 the task is impossible to complete in Boston.

Tsarnaev faces the death penalty if found guilty.

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