Tsarnaev is a remorseless terrorist who
deserves to die for killing innocent
Americans in the name of politics,
prosecutors told jurors at the end of his trial
Wednesday.
The 21-year-old former student was found
guilty last month of carrying out the April 15,
2013 bombings that killed three people and
wounded 264 in one of the deadliest attacks
in the United States since 9/11.
The immigrant of Chechen descent was
convicted on all 30 counts related to the
bombings at the Boston Marathon, and the
subsequent murder of a police officer, a
carjacking and a shootout while on the run.
Tsarnaev’s convictions leave the jury only
two sentencing options under federal law:
the death penalty or life without parole.
“His actions have earned him a sentence of
death,” assistant US attorney Steve Mellin
told the jury in the government’s closing
statement as Tsarnaev sat immobile, staring
at the table in front of him.
Mellin quoted from a bloodied message that
Tsarnaev wrote to justify the attacks over
America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
before he was arrested, in a parked boat, four
days after the attacks.
“No remorse, no apology. Those are the
words of a terrorist convinced he has done
the right thing. He felt justified in killing,
maiming and seriously injuring innocent
men, women and children,” Mellin said.
The prosecutor recalled harrowing testimony
from the loved ones of those who were killed,
saying they will never recover from their
loss.
He reminded jurors of the brutal injuries that
Tsarnaev inflicted, showing the packed court
room photographs of the victims happy and
smiling in the days and years before the
attacks.
The defense, which will make its closing
arguments later Wednesday, has sought to
portray Tsarnaev’s 26-year-old older
brother as the mastermind of the attacks who
manipulated a frightened younger brother.
It has presented 21 mitigating factors,
including Tsarnaev’s young age, 19 at the
time, his brother’s domineering influence, his
father’s mental illness, his parents return to
Russia in 2012 and testimony that he is
remorseful.
– Death penalty must be unanimous –
Tsarnaev’s older brother Tamerlan was
killed in a shootout with police, leaving his
brother to face punishment alone.
Jurors may also consider that his friends and
teachers knew him to be hard-working and
considerate, and “still care for him,” the
judge said Wednesday, and that his “aunts
and cousins love and care for him.”
Lead defense attorney Judy Clarke has
saved some of America’s most notorious
killers from death, including “Unabomber”
serial murderer Theodore Kaczynski and
Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted over the 9/11
attacks.
Earlier on Wednesday the judge delivered
nearly an hour and a half of lengthy
instructions to the same jury, who convicted
Tsarnaev in April and who must now chose
between the death penalty or life
imprisonment.
“The choice between these very serious
alternatives is yours and yours alone to
make,” Judge George O’Toole said.
Seventeen of the convictions carry the death
penalty, and O’Toole told the jury, who will
complete a detailed 24-page verdict form,
they must approach the sentencing decision
“separately as to each count.”
If they select the death penalty for just one
count, that will be imposed regardless of
whether they chose life imprisonment for
others, he said.
“I stress to you the importance of giving
careful and thorough consideration of all the
evidence,” the judge said.
O’Toole told the jury they must weigh
aggravating factors, which would support the
death penalty, and mitigating factors, such
as his age, which would suggest life
imprisonment without the possibility of
release.
Any death penalty sentence must be
unanimous and each jury is required to sign
the verdict form.
“All 12 jurors must agree that death is in fact
an appropriate sentence,” O’Toole said. “No
juror is ever required to impose a sentence of
death. The decision is yours as individuals to
make,” he added.
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