Boston bombing jurors weigh death penalty or life in solitary confinement
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Version 0 of 1. BOSTON — Prosecutors urged a federal jury Wednesday to sentence a former college student responsible for bombing the Boston Marathon to death for the heinous nature of the attack, arguing that his placement of explosives near a young child was evidence of his depravity. During closing arguments in the penalty phase of a lengthy trial, prosecutors said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, was a terrorist who had killed indiscriminately and showed no remorse for his actions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mellin said Tsarnaev “blew apart” Martin Richard, 8, the youngest of the victims, and badly injured the boy’s sister and mother. Two others were killed in the explosion of two bombs, and more than 260 people were wounded. Tsarnaev also was convicted in the killing of a police officer employed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the aftermath of the attack. “His actions have earned him the death penalty,” Mellin said. “There is no just punishment for that other than death.” [View: Images from the trial] Tsarnaev’s lawyers have sought to convince the jury that he was under the spell of his brother, Tamerlan, who had a profound influence on his sibling and who was killed in a shootout days after the bombing. “I ask you to choose life,” pleaded one of Tsarnaev’s attorneys, Judy Clarke, who has previously persuaded juries to spare the lives of clients including Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, and Atlanta Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. A life sentence “reflects justice and mercy,” Clarke told the jury of seven women and five men, adding that a life sentence would not dishonor victims of the attack. “The law allows you to choose justice and mercy.” “He was not the worst of the worst, and that’s what the death penalty is reserved for,” she said. Tsarnaev was convicted last month on all 30 charges he faced in connection with the April 15, 2013, bombings. The jury must weigh the 17 charges that carry the death penalty and what are known as aggravating circumstances — such as the using of a weapon of mass destruction to commit multiple killings in a “heinous, cruel and depraved manner” while carrying out a terrorist attack. One of those aggravating factors relates to the killing of Martin, who was with his family near the marathon finish line when the two bombs set by the Tsarnaev brothers detonated. Mellin said because Martin was so young and only 4 1/2 feet tall, he was more exposed to shrapnel. “Can there be anyone more vulnerable than a little boy next to a weapon of mass destruction?” Mellin said. He added that Martin did not die immediately and that his injuries were “excruciatingly painful.” [Why the death penalty divides Boston ] Tsarnaev’s attorneys have argued that he had a difficult upbringing and came to the United States with his ethnic Chechen family in search of a better life. Clarke said that Tsarnaev was radicalized by his older brother. “Jahar would have never have done this but for Tamerlan,” she said, using the younger brother’s nickname. “Jahar became convinced of the fallacy of the cause of his brother’s passion.” Mellin disputed that assertion. “Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not the defendant’s master,” he said. “They were partners in crime and brothers in arms.” In the prosecution’s rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said, “His brother did not make him do it.” Mellin urged the jurors not to be swayed by “cute photos” of a young Tsarnaev. “All murderers start out as cute children,” he said. Tsarnaev’s defense lawyers called 40 witnesses during the penalty phase of the trial, including a Roman Catholic nun who is famously opposed to the death penalty and who met with their client five times. Sister Helen Prejean, who was played by Susan Sarandon in the 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking,” told the court that she believed Tsarnaev’s remorse was sincere. The jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon. If spared the death penalty, Tsarnaev is likely to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement in a federal prison in Florence, Colo. Weinreb said there is no evidence that Tsarnaev will think in prison about the pain and suffering he caused and become more remorseful over time. He could spend the rest of his life behind bars reading books and magazines, talking with his family and trading letters with pen pals. In prison, Tsarnaev will be well-fed and safe, he said. He told the jury that giving Tsarnaev life in prison was a “lesser punishment.” |