Supremes to hear Dzhokhar death case
Liz Norden said her heart broke when her son told her recently every step he takes is painful “every second.”
“My sons never complain, but that really put it into perspective for me,” said Norden, whose two grown sons lost their right legs in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.
The Supreme Court announced Monday the Trump administration’s appeal to reinstate the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be heard.
That’s welcome news, Norden told the Herald. She understands many — possibly including President Biden — may not approve of capital punishment. But she summed up her feelings saying: “I just want to see justice.”
The hearing is set for the fall.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentences last year, ruling the district court should have asked potential jurors what media coverage they had seen about Tsarnaev’s case and the court should not have excluded from the sentencing phase evidence that Tsarnaev’s older brother, who placed one of the bombs, was involved in a separate triple murder, the SCOTUSblog reported.
As the Herald reported, Tamerlan Tsarnaev bound, beat and slit the throats of three Waltham men, then made off with several thousand dollars after scrubbing the crime scene of fingerprints, a court affidavit stated.
The murders occurred the evening of Sept. 11, 2011 — the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The Tsarnaev brothers — both Chechen immigrants — killed Martin Richard, 8; Krystle Campbell, 29; and Lu Lingzi, 23, and maimed and injured more than 260 people at the April 15, 2013, marathon finish line. MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, 27, was shot execution-style by the Tsarnaevs days later.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed shortly after Collier’s murder in a manhunt in Watertown when his brother ran him over as he escaped in a stolen car — only to be found almost a day later cowering in a shrinkwrapped boat in a backyard in the same town.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now 26, is locked up in the Federal Correctional Complex Florence in Colorado — a supermax called the Alcatraz of the Rockies. He suing the federal government — including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland — for $250,000 to go easier on him.
He could also be among some inmates receiving a $1,400 stimulus check under Biden’s latest round of bailouts, according to U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton.
Tsarnaev’s $2,300 prison canteen account is part of his latest lawsuit, with a federal judge saying he must share details of that account for his complaint to progress.
Norden says all she wants is to “live long enough to see this through. He deserves to die.”