Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted Wednesday in the Boston Marathon
bombing by a federal jury that now must decide whether he should be executed.
The verdict was reached Wednesday afternoon, nearly two years to
the day three people were killed and more than 260 injured in the April 15,
2013, bombings.
Tsarnaev, 21, showed no emotion as he listened to the verdict,
reached after a day and a half of deliberations. He was found guilty on all 30
counts that included conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction --
offenses punishable by death.
His conviction was practically a foregone conclusion, given his
lawyer's startling admission during opening statements that Tsarnaev carried
out the attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.
The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near
the finish line, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the
world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for
days.
In the next phase of the trial, the jury will hear evidence on
whether Tsarnaev should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in
prison.
"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.
Tsarnaev's lawyers left the courthouse without comment.
In a bid to save Tsarnaev from a death sentence, defense attorney
Judy Clarke has argued that Tsarnaev, then 19, fell under the influence of his
radicalized 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.
"If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened,"
Clarke told the jury during closing arguments.
Prosecutors, however, portrayed the brothers -- ethnic Chechens
who moved to the U.S. from Russia more than a decade ago -- as full partners in
a 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.
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 an
8-year-old boy described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally
wounded son so he could get help for their 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had
been blown off.
Killed were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student at
Boston University; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager; and
Martin Richard, the 8-year-old. Massachusetts Institute of Technology police
Officer Sean Collier was shot and killed during the brothers' getaway attempt.
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 included video showing Tsarnaev
planting a backpack containing one of the bombs near where the 8-year-old was
standing, and incriminating statements 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.
Witnesses testified about phone records that showed Dzhokhar was
at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth while his brother was buying bomb
components, including pressure cookers and BBs. A forensics expert said
Tamerlan's computer showed search terms such as "detonator,"
"transmitter and receiver," while Dzhokhar was largely spending time
on Facebook and other social media sites.
Also, an FBI investigator said 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 has kept other high-profile defendants 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.
During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present
so-called mitigating evidence they hope will 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."
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