Boston bomber sentenced to death
US: Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 2013 terror attack by a US federal jury in Massachusetts, after more than 14 hours of deliberations.
Tsarnaev, 21, was convicted last month of 30 charges, 17 of which carried the possibility of the death penalty.
A JURY sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death last night for the Boston Marathon bombing, sweeping aside pleas that he was just a “kid” who fell under the influence of his fanatical older brother.
Tsarnaev, 21, stood with his hands folded, his head slightly bowed, upon learning his fate, decided after 14 hours of deliberations over three days.
The decision sets the stage for what could be the nation’s first execution of a terrorist in the post-9/11 era, though the case is likely to go through years of appeals. The execution would be carried out by lethal injection.
The 12-member federal jury had to be unanimous for Tsarnaev to get the death penalty. Otherwise, he would have automatically received a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Bombing victim Sydney Corcoran, who nearly bled to death and whose mother lost both legs, said: “My mother and I think that now he will go away and we will be able to move on. Justice. In his own words, ‘an eye for an eye’.”
Tsarnaev’s father, Anzor Tsarnaev, reached by phone in the Russian region of Dagestan, let out a deep moan upon hearing the news and hung up.
In a statement, US attorney general Loretta Lynch called the bombing a “cowardly attack” and added: “The ultimate penalty is a fitting punishment for this horrific crime, and we hope that the completion of this prosecution will bring some measure of closure to the victims and their families.”
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013.
The former college student was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of an MIT police officer during the Tsarnaev brothers’ getaway attempt. Seventeen of those charges carried the possibility of the death penalty.
Tsarnaev’s chief lawyer, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, admitted at the very start of the trial that he participated in the bombings, bluntly telling the jury: “It was him.”
But the defence argued that Dzhokhar was an impressionable 19-year-old who was led astray by his volatile and domineering
The ultimate penalty is a fitting punishment for this horrific crime A statement issued by US attorney general Loretta Lynch
26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who was portrayed as the mastermind of the plot to punish the US for its wars in Muslim countries.
Prosecutors depicted the younger brother as an equal partner, saying he was so cold-hearted he planted a bomb on the pavement behind a group of children, killing an eight-year-old boy.
The jurors also heard grisly and heartbreaking testimony from numerous survivors who described seeing their legs blown off or watching someone next to them die.
Killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford; and eight-year-old Martin Richard.