Boston marathon bomber sentenced to death
The Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death by a US jury for his role in the 2013 attacks.
The jury deliberated for 14 hours before deciding to choose death rather than life imprisonment for the 21-year-old, who is of Chechen descent.
The defense had argued that Tsarnaev was a "lost" kid who was manipulated by his older brother. But the jury unanimously agreed that he had demonstrated a lack of remorse.
Opinion polls had suggested that residents favoured a life sentence for Tsarnaev as opposed to a death sentence.
And this included the families of victims. The parents of the youngest victim, Martin Richard,8, publicly opposed the death penalty.
They were worried that years - and possibly decades - of prospective appeals would prolong their agony.
The double bombing carried out by the brothers killed three people and wounded 264 others, including 17 who lost limbs, near the finish line at the northeastern city’s popular marathon.
Tsarnaev went on the run and was arrested four days later, hiding and injured in a grounded boat on which he had scrawled a bloody message defending the attacks as a means to avenge US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He showed no emotion as the court clerk took 20 minutes to read out the verdict form that culminated in the death penalty verdict. He stood hands clasped before him, wearing an open-necked shirt and a dark blazer.
The decision caps a 12-week trial that relived the horror of the attacks through grisly videos and heartbreaking testimony from those who lost limbs and loved ones.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the sentence a “fitting punishment,” while prosecutors and law enforcement in Boston said they were satisfied, but urged commemoration rather than celebration.
Source: AFP
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