Marathon bomber fights for own life
The younger of two Muslim brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon is facing a possible death penalty after a jury found him guilty on 30 charges of murder, detonating ‘‘weapons of mass destruction’’ and bringing carnage to the streets of the American city.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, stared at the table in front of him as the forewoman of the jury pronounced a guilty verdict on every charge. Seventeen carry a possible death penalty and the jury of 12 must now deliberate on whether he should face execution or imprisonment for his crimes.
Three civilians and a policeman were killed and 264 injured during Tsarnaev’s killing spree.
A college student at the time of the bombings, Tsarnaev was wellliked by his peers.
His defence team now is preparing to argue that he was led into an act of terrorism by his elder brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police days after the bombings.
It is not yet known whether Tsarnaev will give evidence himself, though family members may speak on his behalf.
Tsarnaev was convicted of the murders of two young women, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu, and an 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard. All were killed when the brothers planted pressure cooker bombs in the crowd near the finish line of the marathon on April 15, 2013. Other charges related to the violent path the brothers took through Boston suburbs after their pictures were published by the FBI and a manhunt began three days later.
They ambushed and killed a campus police officer, Sean Collier, apparently in a failed attempt to steal his revolver – the jury found Tsarnaev guilty of his murder. He was found guilty of carjacking a man that same evening. The man, Dun Meng, escaped and alerted the authorities. A local police force in the district of Watertown eventually did battle with the brothers, who fought back with bombs and bullets.
As officers wrestled Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, to the ground, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran over his injured brother, before escaping on foot. He was apprehended the following evening, four days after the bombing, in a boat that rested in a driveway.
Guilty verdicts were expected, given the mountain of evidence presented by the prosecution. The jury heard tearful testimony from survivors who lost limbs at the finish line.
His counsel, Judy Clarke, a seasoned defender of death-penalty cases, acknowledged his guilt in an extraordinary opening statement last month. ‘‘It was him,’’ she said, acknowledging the horrors of the bombing and saying she would only differ with the prosecution on the question of why.
US district judge George O’Toole said most of these arguments had to be reserved for the next phase of the trial, in which jurors would decide if he should face the death penalty, expected to begin next week.