A federal appeals court has rejected a fourth defense request to move the Boston Marathon bombing case out of Massachusetts to give suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a fair trial.

Lawyers representing the accused Boston bomber petitioned the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to move the high profile trial to another state on the grounds they cannot find an unbiased panel of jurors in Massachusetts because of the saturation of media coverage surrounding the case and the large number of people personally affected by the 2013 attack.

However, on Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled the trial can stay in Massachusetts. The presiding judge in the trial also rejected the defense motion to move it three times prior.

In an unsigned opinion, Chief Judge Sandra L. Lynch and Circuit Judge Jeffrey R. Howard ruled the defendant "has not met the well-established standards" for the court to intervene "and so we are forbidden by law from granting it," reports The Boston Globe.

According to the appeals court, even when a case receives significant media attention, knowledge of such case "does not equate to disqualifying prejudice."

"Distinguishing between the two is at the heart of the jury selection process," the panel wrote, according to CBS News.

They also noted that over 60 "provisionally qualified" jurors have already been identified.

In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Juan R. Torruella wrote media coverage of the bombing and pretrial process has been "unparalleled in American legal history," and that in the face of such publicity "it is absurd to suggest that Tsarnaev will receive a fair and impartial trial in the Eastern Division of the District of Massachusetts."

"The actions taken by this court today pave the way for a trial that is fair neither in fact nor in appearance," Torruella wrote.

Starting next week, the attorneys will weed out potential jurors to find a jury of 12 people and six alternates, reports CNN.

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 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.

Related