On Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals denied the motion by alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to relocate the trial out of Boston.

The Appellate Court agreed to entertain arguments concerning a petition for mandamus – a means of circumventing the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts’s repeated denials to change the trial’s venue – on Feb. 12.

A ruling was handed down on Friday, Feb. 27, just one day after the court determined that opening statements are likely to be delivered on Wednesday, March 4.

On Tuesday, March 3, a hearing will take place for both sides to exercise peremptory challenges, which allows them to dismiss certain potential jury members for reasons that need not be explained. This will whittle the jury pool down to the applicable 12 bench members and 6 alternates.

Tsarnaev’s defense team threw up a proverbial Hail Mary by pursuing the mandamus, a move seldom granted according to Northeastern School of Law Professor Daniel Medwed.

They continue to contend that jury selection and voir dire have proven an extreme bias on the part of potential jurors and that an unfair an impartial trial could take place if the trial were to take place in Boston.

“It is no surprise that people in general, and especially the well-informed, will be aware of it,” wrote the Appeals Court Judges in their opinion of the trial. “Knowledge, however, does not equate to disqualifying prejudice. Distinguishing between the two is at the heart of the jury selection process.”