Tsarnaev guilty on all charges in Boston Marathon bombing

[webfact]

Tsarnaev guilty on all charges in Boston Marathon bombing
By DENISE LAVOIE

BOSTON (AP) — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all charges Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a jury that will now decide whether the 21-year-old should be executed or shown mercy for what his lawyer says was a crime masterminded by his big brother.

The former college student stood with his hands folded, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table in federal court as he listened to the word "guilty" recited on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy and deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts are punishable by death.

The verdict, reached after a day and a half of deliberations, was practically a foregone conclusion, given his lawyer's startling admission at the trial's outset that Tsarnaev carried out the terror attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.

The defense strategy is to try to save Tsarnaev's life in the upcoming penalty phase by arguing he fell under Tamerlan's evil influence.

The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 other people, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days.

Tsarnaev was found responsible not only for those deaths but for the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was gunned down days later during the brothers' getaway attempt.

"It's not a happy occasion, but it's something," said Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds on her legs and attended the trial. "One more step behind us."

She said Tsarnaev appeared "arrogant" and uninterested during the trial, and she wasn't surprised when she saw no remorse on his face as the verdicts were read. She refused to say whether she believes he deserves the death penalty, but she rejected the defense argument that he was simply following his brother's lead.

"He was in college. He was a grown man who knew what the consequences would be," Brassard said. "I believe he was 'all in' with the brother."

Tsarnaev's lawyers left the courthouse without comment.

In the penalty phase, which could begin as early as Monday, the jury will hear evidence on whether he should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Defense attorney Judy Clarke argued at trial that Tsarnaev was led astray by his radicalized brother, telling the jury: "If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened." She repeatedly referred to Dzhokhar — then 19 — as a "kid" and a "teenager."

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the brothers — ethnic Chechens who moved to the United States from Russia more than a decade ago — as full partners in a brutal and coldblooded plan to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries. Jihadist writings, lectures and videos were found on both their computers, though the defense argued that Tamerlan downloaded the material and sent it to his brother.

Tamerlan, 26, died when he was shot by police and run over by his brother during a chaotic getaway attempt days after the bombing.

The government called 92 witnesses over 15 days, painting a hellish scene of torn-off limbs, blood-spattered pavement, ghastly screams and the smell of sulfur and burned hair.

Survivors gave heartbreaking testimony about losing legs in the blasts or watching people die. The father of 8-year-old Martin Richard described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally wounded son so he could get help for his 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had been blown off.

In the courtroom Wednesday, Denise Richard, the boy's mother, wiped tears from her face after the verdict. The youngster's father, Bill Richard, embraced one of the prosecutors.

In Russia, Tsarnaev's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told The Associated Press in recent days that he would have no comment.

The others killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student at Boston University, and Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager. MIT Officer Sean Collier was shot to death at close range days later.

In a statement, Collier's family welcomed the verdict and added: "The strength and bond that everyone has shown during these last two years proves that if these terrorists thought that they would somehow strike fear in the hearts of people, they monumentally failed."

Some of the most damning evidence at the trial included video showing Tsarnaev planting a backpack containing one of the bombs near where the 8-year-old boy was standing, and a confession scrawled inside the dry-docked boat where a wounded and bleeding Tsarnaev was captured days after the tragedy.

"Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop," he wrote.

Tsarnaev's lawyers barely cross-examined the government's witnesses and called just four people to the stand over less than two days, all in an effort to portray the older brother as the guiding force in the plot.

According to defense testimony, phone records showed Dzhokhar was at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth while his brother was buying bomb components, including pressure cookers and BBs. Tamerlan's computer showed search terms such as "detonator" and "transmitter and receiver," while Dzhokhar was largely spending time on Facebook and other social media sites. And Tamerlan's fingerprints, but not Dzhokhar's, were found on pieces of the two bombs.

Clarke is one of the nation's foremost death-penalty specialists and an expert at keeping her clients off death row. She saved the lives of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her two children in a lake in 1994.

Tsarnaev's lawyers tried repeatedly to get the trial moved out of Boston because of the heavy publicity and the widespread trauma. But opposition to capital punishment is strong in Massachusetts, which abolished its state death penalty in 1984, and some polls have suggested a majority of Bostonians do not want to see Tsarnaev sentenced to die.

The 12-member jury must be unanimous for Tsarnaev to receive a death sentence; otherwise the penalty will be life behind bars.

During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence to try to save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia.

Prosecutors will present so-called aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, including the killing of a child and the targeting of the marathon because of the potential for maximum bloodshed.

Dan Collins, a former federal prosecutor who handled the case against a suspect in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, said Massachusetts' history of opposition to capital punishment will have no bearing on the jury's decision about Tsarnaev's fate.

"When you ask people their opinion of the death penalty, there are a number who say it should only be reserved for the horrific cases," he said. "Here you have what is one of the most horrific acts of terrorism on U.S. soil in American history, so if you are going to reserve the death penalty for the worst of the worse, this is it."

Liz Norden, the mother of two sons who lost parts of their legs in the bombing, said death would be the appropriate punishment: "I don't understand how anyone could have done what he did."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-04-09

[webfact]

BOSTON (AP) - Jury reaches verdict in death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

[Ulysses G.]

If ever there was crime that deserved the death penalty, this is it and he admitted to planning it and carrying it out. .

[timtscott]

I could never support the death penalty. I realize that puts me in the minority here but so be it. The State should not have the right to take a life no matter how heinous the act.

I have no sympathy for this guy. He should be punished and should spend the remainder of his life in a 8' x 8' cell.

There are also members of the current and previous administration who authorized even worse offenses and deserve a similar fate.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[ezzra]

What an insignificant worthless creature that he is, trusted upon the world stage for infamy, a nobody, scum of the earth with a hatred filled heart, no punishment is good enough for him, I would have strapped him with 10kg of TNT and lit a long, long fuse....

Edited April 9, 2015 by Scott

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Yeah I agree another human doesn't have the right to take a life so just send him to Thailand and let the "Hello handsome man" girls screw him to death.

[alex8912]

There are rare times when the death penalty must be the only option. Terrorists who plan and kill the innocent fit this category for me. I was near the finnish line at the Boston marathon that day two years ago and 20 minutes after the bombs exploded there was real terror everywhere around the city. Johar(dzhokhar) the terrorist was buying milk in the supermarket.

Edited April 9, 2015 by alex8912

[bander]

Yeah I agree another human doesn't have the right to take a life so just send him to Thailand and let the "Hello handsome man" girls screw him to death.

This joke was not funny at all

[bander]

After reading this, I feel only disgust and hatred towards Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He deserved the death penalty regardless of whether his brother was the mastermind behind the terrorist attack.

[Suffinator]

I could never support the death penalty. I realize that puts me in the minority here but so be it. The State should not have the right to take a life no matter how heinous the act.

I have no sympathy for this guy. He should be punished and should spend the remainder of his life in a 8' x 8' cell.

There are also members of the current and previous administration who authorized even worse offenses and deserve a similar fate.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

There is clear evidence that the death penalty does not provide a deterrent against crime. However, this guy murdered many people and wounded / destroyed many other lives. Should the tax payer be burdened with having to give this scumbag a life of luxury behind bars.

There are taxpaying citizens that can't afford TV or three square meals a day but that's what this guy will get.

Execute him and have done with it ... it is a guarantee that he'll never be free to commit the same atrocities or worse escape and commit them.

[EnglishJohn]

Like the 9/11 terrorists, they wanted to punish the US by murdering as many innocent men, woman and children as they could.

Welcome to the Muslim terrorist mentality. Give them the same consideration they gave to their victims.

[bikerlou47]

The cost of executing a criminal and keeping him behind bars for the rest of his life....about the same!

[Steely Dan]

He should be executed as soon as possible to stop him being used as a bargaining chip to trade with by terrorists taking hostages.

[noodle]

WOW, lots of true believers in the US 'justice' system here.

[Rimmer]

Off topic post removed, this has nothing to do with the IRA please do not try to hijack the topic, thank you.

Edit: Also, conspiracy post and reply removed.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Scott

[MaxYakov]

There are "fates worse than death". We should be creative and get him one. But, alas, it would be "cruel or unusual".

Edited April 9, 2015 by MaxYakov

[Jingthing]

Stick him in a giant pressure cooker and fill with lentils and barley?

Possibly cruel but definitely UNUSUAL.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Jingthing

[arjunadawn]

I could never support the death penalty. I realize that puts me in the minority here but so be it. The State should not have the right to take a life no matter how heinous the act.

I have no sympathy for this guy. He should be punished and should spend the remainder of his life in a 8' x 8' cell.

There are also members of the current and previous administration who authorized even worse offenses and deserve a similar fate.

Don't worry if you are in the minority. We are all in more trouble if we all agreed. The fact remains, it should always be a weighty issue for people to debate whether the State should be permitted to put people to death.

[Publicus]

He ran over his brother to comply with his wounded brother's wish to be a martyr rather than be taken alive by we their enemy, but the fact Johar in the boat surrendered to the police seems to inidcate he himself is not interested in dying for his vile cause and its deranged means.

He participated with his brother in the shootout with police, trying to kill police officers, and in killing the MIT officer, but alone afterward he basically quit the cause by hiding out in the boat, then surrendered on demand.

If it's the case the most hineous crimes do deserve capital punishment, this Tsarnaev weapon of mass destruction mayhem and sociopathy would be it.

I'd prefer however to pay a penny a month of tax to put him and leave him in isolation in basically a closet for the rest of his life. If he gets some tv to watch, let him grow older and old watching the world go by. If 20 years from now he starts kicking himself for being so galactically stupid, good, if not, so be it.

It's also the case that terrorists abroad have not taken hostages to try getting anyone out of Guantanamo so they're equally unlikely to consider this guy worth their effort either. We can't anyway spend our time second guessing ourselves or adjusting the application of justice due to hostage possibilities.

[Credo]

I would agree, but only if he can only watch the Christian channel.

[NeverSure]

A civilized society that values innocent life should not allow people like this to live. I place no value on this perp's life as a statement that we do not tolerate his actions.

[Publicus]

I've stated my preference but if I were a juror and eleven voted to send him to jihad paradise I'd make it unanimous then volunteer to drive.

[MaxYakov]

He ran over his brother to comply with his wounded brother's wish to be a martyr rather than be taken alive by we their enemy, but the fact Johar in the boat surrendered to the police seems to inidcate he himself is not interested in dying for his vile cause and its deranged means.

He participated with his brother in the shootout with police, trying to kill police officers, and in killing the MIT officer, but alone afterward he basically quit the cause by hiding out in the boat, then surrendered on demand.

If it's the case the most hineous crimes do deserve capital punishment, this Tsarnaev weapon of mass destruction mayhem and sociopathy would be it.

I'd prefer however to pay a penny a month of tax to put him and leave him in isolation in basically a closet for the rest of his life. If he gets some tv to watch, let him grow older and old watching the world go by. If 20 years from now he starts kicking himself for being so galactically stupid, good, if not, so be it.

It's also the case that terrorists abroad have not taken hostages to try getting anyone out of Guantanamo so they're equally unlikely to consider this guy worth their effort either. We can't anyway spend our time second guessing ourselves or adjusting the application of justice due to hostage possibilities.

Sociopathy? Try psychopathy. It's not like you to understate.

[arjunadawn]

There's one perspective regarding islamic jihad that must be considered- we will run out of space! This is simply math. If events sweeping the world and/or western countries continue on the same trajectory and islamic jihad exponentially increases (as it will in the US shortly), the state will run out of prisons, or the cost benefit analysis will invert. If people continue to prosecute islamic jihad as a crime and not act of war the legal system (wholly unable to deal with this) will continue to blindly stop the hemorrhaging while turning these prisoners into bargaining chips, levers, and recruiters.

Islamic jihad is itself a disease upon the earth, a blight on the land. It cannot be reasoned with, mitigated, assuaged, nor redirected; it cannot be allowed to continue in much the same was as virulent bacteria must be destroyed, not encapsulated as TB tubercles/cysts; not a civilian crime. My only concern regarding militarizing the war on terror totally (at home) and having capital punishment authority lowered to local commanders is that there is nothing about this current administration that indicates they consider islamic jihad the threat. Everything about Obama & Company suggests he considers the victims the criminals. While America seeks to empower its leaders to protect from islamic jihad the people are increasingly aware they battle on two fronts- islamic/civilization jihad and civilization treason. Increasing death penalty use for convicted or battlefield jihadists while also suspending habeus corpus and all other manner of insult to liberties must be considered very carefully as these tools are increasingly used against The People and not the threats.

[Jingthing]

Breaking news: Tsarnaev sentenced to death.

Should take about 20 years to actually do, eh?

[NeverSure]

Not if they put him in with the general population.

[Jingthing]

Not if they put him in with the general population.

No, he's "special" -- more likely you'll run into him at Starbucks than that.

[Steely Dan]

I saw an artists impression of Tsarnaev sat in court on the BBC website. Strangely enough he didn't look as angelic as he was previously depicted. I guess even the left can no longer make the moral relativist case.

[Jingthing]

Face it, a lot of the human interest and sympathy towards this guy was because at the time of the bombing at least, he was a handsome young man, cute enough to be in a boy band and turn heads in a gay bar. Yeah, I think he got uglier, but anyway he was old enough to try as an adult and his looks shouldn't have been relevant. Actually, in real life in courts, looks/race/class, etc, often do make a difference though in outcomes.