Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death for his role in the April 15, 2013 bombing, in which twin blasts rocked the race’s crowded downtown finish line, killing three spectators, including an 8 year old boy who Tsarnaeve stood behind for more than a minute before taking off to avoid the blast. 260 others were injured — some horrifically — in the blasts. NBC NEWS:
A jury in Boston voted to execute Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, refuting his lawyers’ argument that he was pulled into the plot by his radicalized Muslim older brother and overcoming Massachusetts’ popular opposition to the death penalty.
After he is formally sentenced by a judge, Tsarnaev will likely end up at the U.S. Bureau of Prison’s death row in Terra Haute, Indiana, where he is expected to embark on an appeals process that could last years before he is finally killed by lethal injection. At 21, he will become the youngest person on federal death row.
But in the short term, the sentence closes a major chapter in Boston’s recovery from the April 15, 2013 bombing, in which twin blasts rocked the race’s crowded downtown finish line, killing three spectators, injuring more than 260 others, and inflicting a grievous psychological wound on one of America’s oldest cities. The explosions, on a local holiday marking the opening battles of the Revolutionary War, were the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11.
Whether the verdict brings Boston any closer to healing is an open question.
The parents of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest of those killed in the bombing, publicly advocated against the death penalty, saying last month that the potentially drawn out appeals process could “prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives.”
Other victims, and victims’ relatives, however, said they favored Tsarnaev’s execution.
The verdict was delivered by the same jury that on April 8 convicted Tsarnaev of all 30 criminal counts against him, covering the bombing and its violent aftermath, including the killing of an MIT police officer and a shootout with police in which Tsarnaev’s co-conspirator older brother was killed.
Of those counts, 17 carried the possibility of execution. The jury needed to reach a unanimous agreement in at least one of those counts to send Tsarnaev to death row. The verdict did not indicate which of those counts the jury agreed on.
The verdict came despite a distaste for capital punishment in Boston and across Massachusetts. The death penalty was banned in the state 1984, and a convict has not been executed there since 1947.
CBS:
Tsarnaev, 21, stood with his hands folded upon learning his fate, decided after 14 hours of deliberations over three days in the nation’s most closely watched terrorism trial since the Oklahoma City bombing case two decades ago.
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 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.
Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel exploded near the marathon finish line April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, also killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer days later.
Tsarnaev 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.
But the defense argued that Dzhokhar was an impressionable 19-year-old who was led astray by his volatile and domineering 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who wanted to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries.
Prosecutors portrayed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an equal partner in the attack, saying he was so heartless he planted a bomb on the pavement behind a group of children, killing an 8-year-old boy.
To drive home their point, prosecutors cited the message he scrawled in the dry-docked boat where he was captured: “Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop.” And they opened their case in the penalty phase with a startling photo of him giving the finger to a security camera in his jail cell months after his arrest.
Some Tweets by WBZ reporter Jim Armstrong capture the drama and tragedy:
again: #Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death.
silence in the courtroom.
silence.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
#Tsarnaev swallows hard.
Attorney Bruck wants the jurors polled one by one.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
Defense atty Miriam Conrad sits with her hand on her mouth.
#Tsarnaev runs his hands through his hair.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
[two_third]
Some people sitting in the defense gallery (not #Tsarnaev family) are crying.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
Several jurors sigh heavily; forewoman wipes her eye with a tissue.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
Another juror cries.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
#Tsarnaev's face displayed no signs of emotion as sentence was read, accd to @KenTucci, Ch 4 producer watching from overflow courtroom.
— Jim Armstrong (@JimArmstrongWBZ) May 15, 2015
SOME OTHER TWITTER REACTION:
It saddens me that people are celebrating the #Tsarnaev verdict. And before you say anything, the victims' families asked for life in prison
— LoneStarPrincess (@texsassforever) May 15, 2015
There are still people out there who think Tsarnaev is innocent. I can't even imagine that level of delusion.
— RB (@RBPundit) May 15, 2015
.@RollingStone said #Tsarnaev was failed by his family… always blaming someone else. pic.twitter.com/ZgEteYeDhq
— Killer Bunny Sam J. (@PolitiBunny) May 15, 2015
Only 3 jurors believed #Tsarnaev fell under the "extremist influence" of his older brother http://t.co/1AasH92HbW pic.twitter.com/5UXO4DbKVO
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 15, 2015
I say we have a national debate about the death penalty starting roughly five minutes after Tsarnaev assumes room temperature.
— RB (@RBPundit) May 15, 2015
Tsarnaev verdict likely beginning of long appeals process. Last federal execution was in 2001 – 44 fed death sentences since, no executions.
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) May 15, 2015
Attorney General Loretta Lynch's statement on Tsarnaev's death sentence pic.twitter.com/rh2R3asdS4
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) May 15, 2015
The Boston bomber has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. It's God's job to forgive terrorists. And we just arranged the meetin'.
— Cloyd Rivers (@CloydRivers) May 15, 2015
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.