Boston bomber intended to kill, court told

BOSTON: The accused Boston Marathon bomber “had murder in his heart” when he placed a homemade bomb behind a line of child spectators in a co-ordinated attack that killed three people and injured 264, prosecutors said in the trial’s opening yesterday.

Prosecutors, who have accused Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, of carrying out the largest mass-casualty attack on US soil since September 11, 2001, focused on the blasts’ youngest fatality, an 8-year-old boy, as they laid out their accusations in US District Court in Boston.

Assistant US Attorney William Weinreb described how the defendant and his 26-year-old brother carefully selected the places where they left the bombs at the crowded finish line on April 15, 2013 in an effort to punish the US for military actions in Muslimdominated countries.

“The defendant wasn’t there to watch the race. He had a backpack over his shoulder and inside was a homemade bomb. It was the type of bomb favoured by terrorists because it is designed to tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle,” Weinreb said. “He had murder in his heart.”

Tsarnaev, whose older brother, Tamerlan, died following a gunbattle with police three days after the blasts, could be sentenced to death if he is found guilty of charges that also include shooting a police officer to death.

“He believed that he was a soldier in a holy war against Americans,” Weinreb said.

The defence aims to portray Tsarnaev as having been under the spell of his older brother, who they contend masterminded the attack.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to all the charges in a 30-count indictment.

A dozen or so people injured in the attack and family members, including dancer Heather Abbott and Marc Fucarile, both of whom lost legs in the blasts, and the parents of the youngest victim, 8-year-old Martin Richard, sat quietly in the courtroom during the proceedings.

Security was tight around the court. Officials have closed some nearby roads amid several large-scale construction projects.

The bombing also killed restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, 29, and graduate student Lingzi Lu, 23. Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 27, was fatally shot three days later. – Reuters