The Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death for his participation in the 2013 explosion that rocked the annual race and killed three people, cost 17 people to lose at least one leg, and resulted in the injury of at least 240 others.
Shortly before adjourning for deliberation in the penalty phase of trial earlier this week, the federal prosecutor had argued to the jurors that a lifetime in jail, even in the extreme conditions of supermax, is not enough for someone who committed such a heinous crime.
“The callousness and indifference that allows you to destroy people’s lives, to ignore their pain, to shrug off their heartbreak — that doesn’t go away just because you’re locked up in a prison cell,” William Weinreb said. “It’s what enables you to be a terrorist, and it’s what insulates you from feelings of remorse.”
Then on Friday, at just after 3 pm and after 14 hours of deliberation, the jury returned the 24 page verdict to the judge.
After the 20 minutes it took to read the decision, it was clear the young man had been sentenced to die.
While some applauded the decision, others, like famous anti-death penalty advocate Helen Prejean, argued that the convicted terrorist – now just 21 – showed genuine remorse for his crimes.
“I had every reason to think he was taking it in and he was genuinely sorry for what he did,”said Prejean, after meeting with him several times.
After the verdict was announced, however, US attorney general said that given the gravity of what Tsarnaev did, execution is a “fitting punishment for this horrific crime.”
With appeals, Tsasrnaev, who is now the youngest man on death row in the United States, will not likely be put to death for atleast a decade.
Photo Credit: Screenshot via NY Times
Original Text Culled From HERE
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