Real justice would be death penalty: families

The radicalized Muslim college student who with his brother planted two bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon was convicted on all counts Wednesday, and jurors will now decide whether he’ll receive a lethal injection for the terror attack.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, fidgeted, folded his arms and scratched his face— but showed no emotion as a court clerk pronounced him guilty on all 30 counts, including conspiracy and deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Seventeen of those counts are punishable by death, and that portion of his trial will begin as early as Monday in federal court in Boston.

“Justice would be the death penalty,” declared Liz Norden, the mother of brothers J. P. and Paul Norden, who both lost a leg in the bombings.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker echoed her call.

“For a crime like this, I would support the death penalty,” said Baker, a Republican.

Victims were gratified by the verdicts, which came as no surprise, since even the terrorist’s own lawyers admitted during the trial that he and his late brother, Tamerlan, were behind the bloody attack that killed three and injured 260, including 17 who lost limbs in the explosions.

“Guilty like we all knew he would be. Great jurors,” said Sydney Corcoran, who nearly bled to death after shrapnel from one of the homemade pressurecooker bombs severed a major artery.

Tsarnaev and his older brother,

Tamerlan, 26, were caught on surveillance video carrying the bombs in their backpacks as runners approached the storied marathon’s festive finish in Boston’s Back Bay to the cheers of thousands who had packed sidewalks, restaurants and bars.

Dzhokhar was found guilty not only for the three deaths but for the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology cop Sean Collier, who was gunned down days later while the brothers were on the run.

Prosecutors said the Tsarnaevs, who still had a cache of pipe bombs and another pressurecooker bomb, wanted Collier’s gun and were planning to flee to New York City to carry out more terror attacks.

Dzhokhar was also convicted of battling cops in a firefight in Watertown outside Boston several days after the bombing following a manhunt that put the region on lockdown.

In the chaos, the brothers threw their remaining pipe and pressurecooker bombs at cops, and Tamerlan was killed after being shot and then was struck by a hijacked getaway car driven by his brother.

A wounded Dzhokhar was caught 17 hours later hiding in a winterized boat in a back yard.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers, hoping to spare their client the death penalty, admitted his guilt but argued he was under a the influence of his brother.

But victims flatly rejected that argument.

“He was in college. He was a grown man who knew what the consequences would be,” Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds to her legs, said of Dzhokhar, a student at the University of MassachusettsDartmouth.

“I believe he was ‘ all in’ with the brother,” she added.

Prosecutors said both brothers were selfradicalized by watching Islamist videos on the Internet and were also influenced by al Qaeda propagandist Anwar alAwlaki, who was killed byaUS drone strike in 2011.

The brothers, ethnic Chechens who moved to the United States from Russia more than a decade ago, hatched the plot to punish America over wars in Muslim countries, the feds said.

“He was making a statement. An eye for an eye. You kill us, we kill you. That’s what he read, that’s what he said, and that’s what he did,” Assistant US Attorney Aloke Chakravarty said in Monday’s closing arguments.

The government called 92 witnesses over 15 days, painting a hellish scene of tornoff limbs, bloodspattered pavement, ghastly screams and the smell of sulfur and burned hair and flesh.

Survivors gave heartbreaking testimony about losing legs in the blasts or watching people die.

Bill Richard, the father of 8yearold Martin Richard, described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally wounded son so he could get help for his 6yearold daughter, whose leg had been blown off.

The others killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23yearold Chinese graduate student at Boston University, and Krystle Campbell, a 29yearold restaurant manager.

In the next trial phase, the jury will hear evidence on whether Tsarnaev should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The attack on innocent men, women and children celebrating the marathon — which was first run in 1897 and is held on Patriots Day in Massachusetts, the third Monday of April — stunned the city but also brought it together.

The slogan “Boston Strong” came to represent the region’s resiliency in the face of terror.

US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Boston’s top federal prosecutor, praised the jury, which deliberated for a day and a half after Monday’s closing arguments.

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