|
| In this courtroom sketch, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, second from left, is depicted standing with his defense attorneys William Fick, left, Judy Clarke, second from right, and David Bruck, right, as the jury presents its verdict in his federal death penalty trial Wednesday, April 8, 2015, in Boston. Tsarnaev was convicted on multiple charges in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when twin pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line. |
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."
