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BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for two friends of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects argued Monday that the friends have been unfairly targeted because of their relationships with the men accused of carrying out the deadly attack.

Azamat Tazhayakov, 20, a college friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Khairullozhon Matanov, a Quincy cab driver who was a friend of Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan, were in court for separate hearings on charges of impeding the investigation into the 2013 bombing.

Tazhayakov is accused of removing items from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth days after the bombing, while Matanov is accused for deleting files from his computer and lying to investigators.

Neither man is accused of participating in the attack or knowing about the bombings in advance.

With Tazhayakov's trial set to begin next week, his lawyers said they were confident he will be acquitted. Attorney Matthew Meyers told reporters that prosecutors offered Tazhayakov a deal if he agreed to plead to reduced charges, but he rejected it.

"He's confident," Meyers said. "He knows he's not guilty."

Meyers would not disclose the terms of the plea offer. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz would not confirm that a plea deal was offered.

Meyers said Tazhayakov should not be punished because of his friendship with Tsarnaev.

"Even the average juror in Boston will be shocked by the lack of evidence," he said.

Nicholas Wooldridge, another lawyer representing Tazhayakov, said the defense is hopeful of finding an impartial jury, but he acknowledged it could be challenging because of the impact the bombing had in the Boston area.

"Even though this case is not the Boston Marathon bombing case, still people have a connection with that," he said.

Authorities say the Tsarnaev brothers planted two pressure cooker bombs at the marathon last year, killing three and wounding more than 260. Tamerlan died following a shootout with police several days later. Dzhokhar is awaiting trial and faces the possibility of the death penalty.

The other Tsarnaev friend in court Monday, Matanov, is accused of lying when questioned about his relationship with the brothers.

A judge rejected a plea from Matanov's lawyer, Edward Hayden, to release his client on bail as he awaits trial.

Hayden argued that Matanov, 23, who moved to the United States from Kyrgyzstan in 2010, went to police on his own the morning after the FBI released photos of the Tsarnaevs as suspects in the bombing. He identified the brothers and gave police their address and phone numbers.

Hayden, who initially did not make an argument for bail, said he has now found an apartment where Matanov can live, and is actively looking for a job for him. Matanov was fired from his job as a cab driver after he was indicted.

"This court has heard no evidence of how he obstructed this investigation or how he intended to obstruct this investigation," Hayden argued.

He said the FBI knows Matanov "is just a hard-working guy driving that cab for about 15 to 18 hours per day."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Garland, in arguing against bail, said Matanov has sent money to friends and family around the world, making it possible that he could have a "soft landing" in another country if he decided to flee the United States.

"These are people who might want to take him in because they owe him some sort of a debt, even if it's just a debt of friendship," Garland said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler agreed with prosecutors that Matanov poses a flight risk and rejected his request to be released on bail.

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (AP) — A rare auction of an Oscar statuette brought a total of $79,200, well more than expected, at its sale Monday by a Rhode Island auction house.

Nanci Thompson of Briarbrook Auctions said the total included a 20 percent buyer's premium for the 1942 Oscar. She declined to disclose the name of the buyer, but said "you would recognize the name."

The auctioneer had estimated the golden statuette would sell for $5,000 to $30,000. But several hours before the live auction began, the online bidding had already reached $32,000.

The statue was awarded to Joseph C. Wright at the 15th Academy Awards for color art direction for his work on "My Gal Sal," starring Rita Hayworth and Victor Mature.

Prior to the auction, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was investigating the sale of the statuette. Since 1950, the academy has prohibited Oscar recipients and their heirs from selling the statues without first offering them back to the academy for $1. But the auction house said the restriction does not apply because the Oscar was awarded before 1950.

Wright died in 1985, and his nephew inherited the statue. It weighs around 6 pounds and is 13 inches high. The auctioneer said it is in good condition, with just a little wear at the back.

Wright received 12 Academy Award nominations and won twice, both in 1942 and both shared with Richard Day. The other award was for black-and-white art direction for "This Above All," starring Tyrone Power and Joan Fontaine.

Wright also was nominated for his work on movies including "Days of Wine and Roses," "Guys and Dolls" and the "Man With the Golden Arm."

EL CAJON, California (AP) — A California judge sentenced an Iraqi immigrant Monday to 26 years-to-life in prison for his wife's fatal beating — an attack that initially drew international condemnation when authorities believed it was a hate crime.

Kassim Alhimidi, 50, entered the courtroom bound and surrounded by deputies because of his previous outbursts that repeatedly disrupted his emotional trial in San Diego County Superior Court.

On Monday, he yelled out in English "I swear I am not guilty!" and then shouted in Arabic to his son, before the judge ordered the defendant to be briefly removed from courtroom.

When Alhimidi returned minutes later, Alhimidi blew kisses to his 17-year-old son, Mohammad, and then sobbed as the teen told the court: "I just basically lost both my parents."

The couple's oldest daughter, Fatima, found Shaima Alawadi, 32, in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of their home in 2012 in El Cajon, a San Diego suburb that is home to the second-largest Iraqi population in the United States.

She died at a hospital two days later after suffering multiple fractures to her skull.

Investigators initially believed the killing was a hate crime because of a note found after the beating near the devout Muslim mother of five who wore a hijab. It read: "This is my country, go back to yours, you terrorist."

The victim and her Shiite Muslim family left Iraq in the early 1990s after a failed Shiite uprising, living in Saudi Arabian refugee camps before coming to the United States.

The slaying was condemned by Muslim community leaders in the United States and Iraq before lab tests determined the note was a photocopy of one found earlier outside the home, indicating it was planted.

Prosecutors said Alhimidi lied to police about the state of his marriage and hid the fact that his wife was seeking a divorce and planned to move to Texas. His wife's relative also overheard Alhimidi apologize to his wife as she lay dying in a hospital, according to the prosecution.

Alhimidi's daughter, Fatima, did not attend the sentencing but sent a statement that was read in court in which she told her father: "What I saw scarred me for life."

She added: "It disgusts me that you made this look like a hate crime."

The 18-year-old is now taking care of her two younger sisters in El Cajon, while the two sons are living in Texas, her brother, Mohammad, said after the hearing.

After being sentenced, Alhimidi yelled out that he would prefer to be sentenced to death and donate his organs.

Alhimidi's outbursts stopped the proceedings several times during his trial. He shook his head and wagged his finger as jurors delivered the guilty verdict in April.

His sons shouted in his defense, with one yelling obscenities before several deputies wrestled him out of the courtroom.

His son, Mohammad, who tattooed a drawing of a woman in a hijab on his arm in honor of his mother, told reporters Monday that he struggled at the time to believe his father had killed his mother.

Mohammad told the court he wakes up at night thinking of her and breaks down when he remembers "the man I looked up to all my life is the reason why she is gone."

Defense lawyers said there was no forensic evidence against Alhimidi and that he loved his wife and was not a violent man. They say he also returned from Iraq after burying his wife there when he could have stayed in his homeland to avoid prosecution.

Alhimidi will have to serve 26 years actual time before he is eligible for a parole hearing, but he will get credit for time already served since his November 2012 arrest.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Race is roiling the Republican Senate runoff in Mississippi, a state with a long history of racially divided politics where the GOP is mostly white and the Democratic Party is mostly black.

National tea party groups say they are working to "ensure a free and fair election" by sending several dozen observers to precincts to watch who votes during Tuesday's GOP contest, concerned about six-term Sen. Thad Cochran's efforts to persuade Mississippi Democrats to cast ballots. Challenger Chris McDaniel and the tea party portray cross-party voting as dangerous and even illegal, though state law allows it.

"Thad Cochran and his establishment handlers are out trolling, begging for Democrats to cross over and vote in the Republican runoff," Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund chairwoman Jenny Beth Martin said in announcing that her group and two others have hired an attorney to watch Tuesday's primary.

While Cochran rarely mentions race, he readily acknowledges he's seeking support from black and white voters.

"I think it's important for everybody to participate," he says. "Voting rights has been an issue of great importance in Mississippi. People have really contributed a lot of energy and effort to making sure the political process is open to everyone."

Cochran's campaign staff believes he would get a boost if Mississippi voters who traditionally go for Democrats — black voters and union members — participate in the GOP runoff. The Republican nominee will be a heavy favorite in November, and several prominent black Democrats are supporting the incumbent as far preferable to his primary challenger.

At a Tea Party Express rally Sunday in Biloxi, McDaniel, a state senator, never mentioned race. But he received loud applause when he said: "Why is a 42-year incumbent pandering to liberal Democrats to get re-elected?"

A man in the crowd shouted: "Reparations!" McDaniel did not respond.

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund and two other independent groups that are supporting McDaniel, FreedomWorks and Senate Conservatives Fund, say they have hired a former Justice Department attorney, J. Christian Adams, "to ensure a free and fair election in Mississippi on June 24."

Adams was the Justice Department attorney who handled a 2007 case in which Ike Brown, a black elections official, was found to have violated the rights of white voters in majority-black Noxubee County. It was the first time the Justice Department had used the 1965 Voting Rights Act to allege racial discrimination against whites.

"Election integrity is essential, and Mississippi has a long, documented and tragic history of lawlessness in elections," Adams said. "The outcome of the runoff should be determined by who gets the most votes, not by who manipulates the system the best."

FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon said Monday that the groups will send several dozen volunteers to precincts Tuesday, but he would not say where.

Asked if the Justice Department is watching this year's runoff, Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in an email: "The department is aware of concerns about voter intimidation and is monitoring the situation." Voters who experience problems are encouraged to report them, she said.

Mississippi voters do not register by party, and state law says the only people prohibited from voting in the Republican runoff Tuesday are those who voted in the Democratic primary June 3.

But there's potential for confusion because the tea party groups are citing another Mississippi law that says a voter can participate in a party primary only if he intends to support that party's nominee in the general election. A federal appeals court ruled in 2008 that the law is unenforceable. The ruling came in a case in which Democrats sought to block Republicans from crossing over in primaries.

Mississippi also has a new law requiring voters to show a driver's license or other form of government-issued photo identification at the polls. It was used for the first time in the June 3 primaries. Critics compare voter ID to poll taxes that were once used to prevent blacks and poor whites from voting, but supporters say the new law blocks people from masquerading as others to vote.

About 9 out of 10 white voters in Mississippi said they supported Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, and more than 9 of 10 black voters said they supported Democratic President Barack Obama, according to an exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and other news organizations. Still, Cochran is supported by some black Democrats, including Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs and state Sen. Willie Simmons.

Simmons told the AP on Monday that he voted in the Democratic primary June 3 and can't vote in the GOP runoff Tuesday, but he has campaigned for Cochran by making phone calls and sending letters to black churches citing the former Appropriations Committee chairman's support of Head Start and historically black universities.

"Sen. Cochran himself did not even ask me to support him," Simmons said. "I volunteered to support him because of the things he has done in the Senate."

Simmons said that while some black Mississippians quietly vote for Republicans in general elections, they might be reluctant to publicly declare their intentions by going to a Republican table to request a ballot on primary day.

"This election is going to put them in a position where they have to do two things that is unusual for them," Simmons said. "First, they have to pull out an ID and show it. And, second, they have to vote in a Republican runoff."

Simmons said if a poll watcher cites the unenforceable law about not voting in a primary unless intending to support the nominee in the general election, "that could lead to intimidation."

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Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.