Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sentence: Death in Boston Marathon bombing

Ray Slover

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sentence: Death in Boston Marathon bombing image

Life or death: That was the choice given jurors in the Boston Marathon bombings case after the conviction of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Friday, we learned the answer. Tsarnaev will die.


Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Getty Images)

Tsarnaev, 21, was in a Boston federal court when the decision is announced.

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The same people who found Tsarnaev guilty on April 8 were charged with deciding whether he would spend his life in prison or die for his actions. Tsarnaev was 18 at the time of the bombings.

Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 counts, starting with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and finding that the conspiracy resulted in the deaths of Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu and 8-year-old Martin Richard at the bombing scene and MIT police officer Sean Collier a few days later.


From left: Campbell, Collier, Lu and Richard (via Twitter)

The 2013 bombings occurred near the marathon's finish line, where Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, were seen carrying backpacks. Inside, prosecutors convinced jurors, were bombing built from pressure cookers.

When the bombs exploded, one of them near the Richard family, three people died, more than 260 were injured and scores lost limbs.

Jurors — seven women and five men — reached their decision after more than 14 hours of deliberation over three days, according to The Boston Herald.

Tsarnaev will become the youngest person facing execution at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. A life sentence would have seen Tsarnaev moved to solitary confinement in Colorado.

Defense attorneys admitted Tsarnaev had taken part in the bombings but had been under the influence of his older brother. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died April 19, 2013, following a firefight with Boston-area police. Dzhokar Tsarnaev escaped the shooting by driving a car over his brother's body.

According to The New York Times:

Tsarnaev’s bombs transformed the marathon, a cherished rite of spring, from a sunny holiday on Boylston Street to a smoky battlefield scene, with shrapnel flying, bodies dismembered and blood saturating the sidewalks; three people were killed almost instantly, while 17 had their legs blown off. More than 240 others sustained serious injuries, some of them life-altering.

The Times also described how prosecutors convinced jurors that "Tsarnaev changed from an immigrant in 2002 to "a coldblooded, unrepentant jihadist who sought to kill innocent Americans in retaliation for the deaths of innocent Muslims in American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Only three jurors agreed Tsarnaev was working under his brother's influence.

The jury was selected in January and since has been working through the evidence in court and private deliberations. They heard 10 weeks of testimony.

Ray Slover