21 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shows no remorse and flips a security camera the middle finger. Jurors were showed this photo prior to him being sentenced to death on May 15, 2015.
At this point the 21 year old Russian punk “Boston Bomber” may be one of the (if not THE) most hated men in the United States.
A jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to die by way of lethal injection for his role in the 2013 gruesome terrorist bombing that rocked Boston, leaving hundreds wounded, and horrifying the rest of the world.
I personally have never had a strong opinion about the death penalty, but in this case I believe that the jury did the right thing. I don’t think that a person who intentionally set out to kill hundreds of innocent people deserves to breathe any more air, especially when he shows the world how he really feels by flipping the bird to a security camera and according to reports, seemingly “bored” throughout his death penalty trial.
Tsarnaev’s attorneys are more than likely already filling out the appeals paperwork, which (unfortunately) means that taxpayers will have to continue to house and feed this menace until the appeals process is exhausted.
Do you think the jury made the right decision to sentence him to death?
Peep the article.
Join the discussion.
A bomb set by the Tsarnaev brothers can be seen going off as Boston Marathon runners enter the finish line.
Via Time:
A jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death Friday for the Boston Marathon bombing, sweeping aside pleas that he was just a “kid” who fell under the influence of his fanatical older brother.
Tsarnaev, 21, stood with his hands folded, his head slightly bowed, upon learning his fate, decided after 14 hours of deliberations over three days. It was the most closely watched terrorism trial in the U.S. since the Oklahoma City bombing case two decades ago.
The decision sets the stage for what could be the nation’s first execution of a terrorist in the post-9/11 era, though the case is likely to go through years of appeals. The execution would be carried out by lethal injection.
The 12-member federal jury had to be unanimous for Tsarnaev to get the death penalty. Otherwise, he would have automatically received a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Bombing victim Sydney Corcoran, who nearly bled to death and whose mother lost both legs, said: “My mother and I think that NOW he will go away and we will be able to move on. Justice. In his own words, ‘an eye for an eye.’”
Tsarnaev’s father, Anzor Tsarnaev, reached by phone by the Associated Press in the Russian region of Dagestan, let out a deep moan upon hearing the news and hung up.
In a statement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the bombing a “cowardly attack” and added: “The ultimate penalty is a fitting punishment for this horrific crime, and we hope that the completion of this prosecution will bring some measure of closure to the victims and their families.”
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013.
The former college student was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of an MIT police officer during the Tsarnaev brothers’ getaway attempt. Seventeen of those charges carried the possibility of the death penalty.
Tsarnaev’s chief lawyer, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, admitted at the very start of the trial that he participated in the bombings, bluntly telling the jury: “It was him.”
But the defense argued that Dzhokhar was an impressionable 19-year-old who was led astray by his volatile and domineering 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who was portrayed as the mastermind of the plot to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries.
Prosecutors depicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an equal partner in the attack, saying he was so coldhearted he planted a bomb on the pavement behind a group of children, killing an 8-year-old boy. To drive home their point, prosecutors cited the message he scrawled in the dry-docked boat where he was captured: “Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop.” And they opened their case in the penalty phase with a startling photo of him giving the finger to a security camera in his jail cell months after his arrest.
“This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev —unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged,” prosecutor Nadine Pellegrin said.
The jurors also heard grisly and heartbreaking testimony from numerous bombing survivors who described seeing their legs blown off or watching someone next to them die.
Killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family. Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier was shot to death in his cruiser days later. Seventeen people lost legs in the bombings.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died days after the bombing when he was shot by police and run over by Dzhokhar during a chaotic getaway attempt.
The speed with which the jury reached a decision surprised some, given that the panel had to fill out a detailed, 24-page worksheet in which the jurors tallied up the factors for and against the death penalty.
The possible aggravating factors cited by the prosecution included the cruelty of the crime, the killing of a child, the amount of carnage inflicted, and lack of remorse. The possible mitigating factors included Tsarnaev’s age, the possible influence of his brother and his turbulent, dysfunctional family.
The jury agreed with the prosecution on 11 of the 12 aggravating factors cited, including lack of remorse. In weighing possible mitigating factors, only three of the 12 jurors found he acted under the influence of his brother.
Tsarnaev did not take the stand at his trial, and he slouched in his seat through most of the case, a seemingly bored look on his face. In his only flash of emotion during the months-long case, he cried when his Russian aunt took the stand.
The only evidence of any remorse on his part in the two years since the attack came from the defense’s final witness, Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and staunch death penalty opponent made famous by the movie “Dead Man Walking.”
She quoted Tsarnaev as saying of the bombing victims: “No one deserves to suffer like they did.”
Tsarnaev’s lawyers also called teachers, friends and Russian relatives who described him as a sweet and kind boy who cried during “The Lion King.” The defense called him a “good kid.”
The defense argued that sparing his life and instead sending him to the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, would be a harsh punishment and would best allow the bombing victims to move on with their lives without having to read about years of death penalty appeals.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. will formally impose the sentence at a later date during a hearing in which bombing victims will be allowed to speak. Tsarnaev will also be given the opportunity to address the court.
The Tsarnaevs —ethnic Chechens — lived in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and the volatile Dagestan region, near Chechnya, before moving to the U.S. about a decade before the bombings. They settled in Cambridge, just outside Boston.
The younger (and only living) Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was found guilty on 30 charges of various crimes surrounding the Boston attacks and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 21 year old convicted terrorist.
Apparently Tsarnaev is hoping for a life in prison sentence which is not likely based on the gruesomeness and downright viciousness of his crimes. It is almost appalling that he believes that he should have the right to still live.
Last week I posted the gut wrenching article in whichthe family of a 8 year old boy testifiedat the bomber’s trail about the tragic day their son was killed by one of the bombs set by the Tsarnaev brothers.
The death penalty phase of the trial begins April 21, 2015.
Via Reuters:
The Boston Marathon bombing trial enters a new phase on April 21 as federal prosecutors begin to mount their case for putting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for killing three people and injuring 264 others in the 2013 attack.
The same jury that on Wednesday found Tsarnaev, 21, guilty of carrying out one of the most shocking attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, will hear from more prosecution and defence witnesses before determining whether to sentence him to death or life in prison without possibility of parole.
The prosecution is expected to portray the ethnic Chechen as an Islamic extremist adherent of al Qaeda who planted one of the two homemade pressure cooker bombs at the race’s finish line on April 15, 2013, because he “wanted to punish America for what it was doing to his people,” in the words of Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty.
The defence, meanwhile, is expected to play up the role of his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, in carrying out the attack. In closing arguments last week, defence attorney Judith Clarke contended that Tamerlan was the driving force behind the bombing, with Dzhokhar following along.
Tamerlan died during the brothers’ chaotic final day of freedom. Three days after the bombing, the pair shot dead a police officer and carjacked a Chinese businessman as they attempted to flee the city.
The carjacking victim escaped and alerted police to their plans, setting the stage for a gunfight between the Tsarnaevs and law enforcement that ended when Dzhokhar roared off in the stolen SUV, running over his brother.
During the guilt phase of the trial, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole had limited the amount of evidence the defence could present about the relationship between the brothers, who had immigrated to the United States from Russia a decade before the attack.
But the sentencing phase, which the Justice Department announced on Friday would begin on April 21, will provide the defence with an opportunity to focus on that element of the case and possibly to call Tsarnaev to testify.
The death penalty is controversial in Massachusetts, where it is illegal under state law but allowed in federal cases. The state has not seen an execution since 1947.
The bombing killed restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, 29; Chinese exchange student Lingzi Lu, 23; and 8-year-old Martin Richard. Tsarnaev also was found guilty of the fatal shooting of Massachusetts of Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26.
A photo of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed in the Boston Bombing. Photo: Boston Globe
An 8-year-old boy who once urged people to “stop hurting each other” was literally blown apart by a homemade bomb as he watched the 2013 Boston Marathon with his family, jurors heard Monday.
Federal prosecutors rested their case with grisly testimony about how the bomb Dzhokar Tsarnaev placed near the marathon’s finish line tore through the bodies of Martin Richard and Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old grad student.
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