In the US Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty.
A federal US jury has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – the surviving brother behind the Boston Marathon bombings, guilty of 30 charges in relation to the Boston bombings – all which carry the death penalty.
The bombings in April 2013 killed three people and injured more than 260.
Jurors found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 counts, including – conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, and aiding and abetting, conspiracy to bomb a public place, and bombing a public place.
The jury determined that he was responsible for the deaths of Krystle Campbell, 8-year old Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu and Sean Collier.
CBS News reports that Tsarnaev stood with his head bowed and his hands clasped. The families of the victims who were in court were silent, some sitting on the edge of their seats.
He was found guilty on all 30 charges against him.
The jury deliberated for 11½ hours before reaching the verdict overnight, hearing from 96 witnesses.
During the trial Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty said.”The defendant brought terrorism into the backyards and main streets,”
“The defendant thought that his values were more important than the people around him. He wanted to awake the mujahedeen, the holy warriors, so he chose Patriots’ Day, Marathon Monday,”
21-year old Tsarnaev tried to convince jurors that his older brother was responsible with defense attorney Judy Clarke saying 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with police days after the terror attack, was the instigator of the marathon plot.
The younger brother Clarke said, was only following Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
“If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened,” Clarke argued.
Victim Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in the explosions wrote on Facebook.
The jury will now begin hearing evidence on whether Tsarnaev should get life in prison or a death sentence.
The Boston Globe reports that defence lawyers will try to further paintTsarnaev as a victim of his brother’s radicalisation in arguing for a lesser sentence than death.
“The defense may also cite what are known as “mitigating” factors: Tsarnaev has no prior criminal record; he was a lesser participant; and they may cite his upbringing as the youngest of four children in an immigrant family facing a difficult adjustment to American life.”
For the death penalty, the jury must reach a unanimous decision.
If a jury is not unanimous in that decision, the judge will hand out a sentence of life imprisonment.
In the meantime the families of the victims of the bombings try to move on.
” A day doesn’t pass when we don’t cry over the loss of Martin, but we also laugh when we think about him, which feels like the right way to remember a little boy with a zest for life and a caring heart.”
Top Comments
The international armchair jury so vocally supporting Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran and hotly declaring the barbarity of the death penalty seem to have been noticeably silent on this guy's fate.....will there be a huge public media campaign supporting mercy for Tsarneav? Will there be articles about how carrying out the sentence has a psychological impact on those tasked to do it and how no job description should include killing another human being? Will there be bold statements that it will cost more to execute him than keep him in prison for life or that capital punishment doesn't actually deter crime? That the state reduces itself to the same level as a murderer by doing this? That a life is a life is a life and every one is precious and everyone deserves a chance to atone for their wrongs? According to all the arguments I've seen in favour of the two in Bali, people should be out in force and declaring their outrage that the death sentence is even a possibility in this case - in a civilised country in this day and age - yet all I hear is crickets.......seems the death penalty is only wrong and barbaric when it's an Aussie other Australians feel don't "deserve" it. The hypocrisy is astounding.
There's a big difference between a drug dealer and a terrorist.
Not to Indonesians? Culturally, they view both crimes as on a par.
So really, you can argue the death penalty is barbaric, cruel and ineffective, life is precious and people can and do change - in which case you're required to argue that Tsarneav deserves to live and petition for clemency when he gets the death penalty (I know he hasn't been sentenced, but seriously, does anyone doubt the outcome?).
Or you can argue it is deserved in some situations - but only in situations deemed appropriate by western first world standards and morals, and only by methods also approved by us.
Or you can simply believe that other nations have the right to create their own laws and sentencing, and respect that.
Totally different. I don't think there would be such an outcry regarding Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran if they were unrepentant, blaming someone else and saying poor little me I was just following him. They have taken responsibility and made enormous efforts to rehabilitate themselves and others. They also trafficked drugs, they didn't set off a bomb designed to kill many more than it actually did.
Chan and Sukamaran originally plead not guilty and denied any knowledge or involvement. During his trial, Sukumaran denied knowing any of the couriers, or anything about a plan to import heroin. He denied signing police statements, and when asked by judges to sign his name as an example of his signature, signed his name in four different styles. Why do they get the opportunity to repent, take responsibility and rehabilitate themselves over 10 years and Tsarneav doesn't?