Seven women and five men sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death in the Boston Marathon bombing – unanimously. He wept when several relatives of the victims of the bombing tried to spare him.
Defense Appealed For ?Mercy
But Tsarnaev sat emotionless as the verdict was read: death for six of 17 capital counts related to where he positioned the pressure-cooker bomb ? behind a little boy at the finish line.
The jury rejected the idea that Tsarnaev was under the influence of his older brother, a strategy where the defense had appealed to the jury for clemency. After a 14-hour debate, it concluded that a life-time sentence in the Colorado super-maximum prison was insufficient punishment for him.
The defense attorneys failed to convince the jurors that the bomber had expressed sorrow and remorse. According to the New York Times, Sister Helen Prejean?s, a Roman Catholic nun, testimony where she appealed to the jury for leniency saying that he was ?genuinely sorry.?
Prosecutor Prevails
In his closing argument, federal prosecutor Steven Mellin said,
?After all of the carnage and fear and terror that he has caused, the right decision is clear. The only sentence that will do justice in this case is a sentence of death.?
Michael Kendall, a former federal prosecutor in Boston, commented on the defendant’s callousness,
?After he blows up this child on purpose, he’s out at the convenience store buying milk, then he smokes a little dope and plans on blowing up New York.”
?I’ve seen juries return verdicts in 25 minutes if the evidence is strong. But rarely do you have a case like this ? a crime of such enormity to start with, plus a mountain of evidence and a defendant who is so unsympathetic.?
The man was responsible for the carnage of blood, dismemberment, and travesty. After the smoke cleared, three were dead, 17 ?lost at least one leg.? In total there were 240 injuries, some of them catastrophic.
Reactions To Verdict
An off-duty firefighter who helped the victims said on MSNBC’s NOW with Alex Wagner‘s live show,
?I remember when the bombs went off. This is a matter of justice. No one here is celebrating. Justice has prevailed. His justice, he wanted to go to hell and he’s going to get there quicker than made it here.?
A father whose daughter was injured was said,
“I want to thank all that took care of the survivors. My family and I support that whatever the jury came out with was the right decision.”
Sentence To Be Appealed
Tsarnaev immigrated to Cambridge, Mass., from the Russian Caucasus with his family in 2002. According to the New York Times,
?In Russia, when contacted by a reporter and informed of the verdict, Mr. Tsarnaev’s father, Anzor, simply exhaled and hung up. He then turned off his cellphone.?
Death sentences are typically appealed, and then the process drags on for years. But death will guarantee Tsarnaev what he has sought — a terrorist’s martyrdom.
