Boston bomber, 21, faces death penalty
BOSTON bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces the death penalty after a jury found him guilty of carrying out the 2013 attacks.
The university student was yesterday convicted of all 30 charges relating to the bombings at the Boston Marathon, which killed three people, maimed 17 others and injured 240 more.
The 21-year-old’s guilt had not been in doubt, as his own lawyers admitted he was responsible along with his brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a police shootout.
The defence called only four witnesses against 92 called by the prosecution. However, Tsarnaev’s lawyer argued that he was a naive teenager who was overpowered by his radicalised brother, 26.
The pair were Chechen Muslim immigrants who planted the bombs in revenge for the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the court heard. Of the 30 charges on which Tsarnaev was convicted, 17 carry the death penalty. He showed no emotion and had his arms folded as the verdict was read out in Boston’s US District Court. Prosecutors now plan to bring on survivors and victims’ relatives during the sentencing phase of the hearing, to testify to the devastation that the bombing wrought on their lives.
The month-long trial heard how Tsarnaev placed one of the two homemade pressure cooker bombs behind a row of children near the marathon’s finish line.
Of the three dead, two were young women and the third was eight-year-old Martin Richard.
Following the attacks, the brothers went on the run and shot dead a university police officer as they attempted to flee the city.