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Judge granted Tsarnaev request to disclose audio recordings

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A judge has granted a request by lawyers representing accused Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to disclose audio recordings of telephone calls made during the alleged Boston Marathon bomber's stay at FMC Devens.

In a court filing released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole granted Tsarnaev's motion to compel in regards to the audio recordings, but denied his request for discovery on other matters, including immigration files of family members that Tsarnaev believes will help in presenting his full life history. Tsarnaev's original request included information related to a 2011 triple murder in Waltham. Investigators claim a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar's older brother, implicated the alleged mastermind of the bombings in the triple murders.

The judge added one limitation, that the audio recordings be only accessible to Tsarnaev and the defense counsel. This limitation was added in order to prevent accidental public dissemination and to ensure a fair and impartial jury.

The judge also found that in a death case, the defense is entitled to discovery pertaining to sentencing, even in pretrial. However, with exception of the audio tapes, the judge ruled that the defense failed to show the government has failed to meet the threshold of how the other information would be material to the case.