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| In this courtroom sketch, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, right, stands before U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. as he addresses the court during his sentencing, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in federal court in Boston. Tsarnaev apologized to the victims and their loved ones for the first time Wednesday just before the judge formally sentenced him to death. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- Moments before a judge sentenced him to death, Boston Marathon bomber
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev broke more than two years of silence Wednesday and
apologized to the victims and their loved ones for the first time. "I
pray for your relief, for your healing," he said.
"I
am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've
caused you, for the damage that I've done - irreparable damage," the
21-year-old former college student, speaking haltingly in his Russian
accent, said after rising to his feet in the hushed federal courtroom.
After
Tsarnaev said his piece, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. quoted
Shakespeare's line "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is
often interred with their bones."
"So it will
be for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev," the judge said, telling Tsarnaev that no one
will remember that his teachers were fond of him, that his friends found
him fun to be with or that he showed compassion to disabled people.
"What
will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people and
that you did it willfully and intentionally," O'Toole said.
Tsarnaev
looked down and rubbed his hands together as the judge pronounced his
fate: execution, the punishment decided on by the jury last month for
the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260.
The
apology came after Tsarnaev listened impassively for about three hours
as a procession of 24 victims and survivors lashed out at him for his
"cowardly" and "disgusting" acts and urged him to show some remorse at
long last.
Tsarnaev assured the victims he was paying attention.
"All
those who got up on that witness stand and that podium relayed to us,
to me - I was listening - the suffering that was and the hardship that
still is, with strength and with patience and with dignity," he said.
The
outcome of the proceedings was never in doubt: The judge was required
under law to impose the jury's death sentence for the April 15, 2013,
attack that authorities said was retaliation for U.S. wars in Muslim
lands.
The only real suspense was whether
Tsarnaev would say anything when offered the chance to speak. And if so,
would he show remorse? Or would he make a political statement and seek
to justify the attack?
During his trial, he
showed a trace of emotion only once, when he cried while his aunt was on
the stand. And the only evidence of any remorse came from Sister Helen
Prejean, the "Dead Man Walking" death penalty opponent, who quoted him
as saying of the victims: "No one deserves to suffer like they did."
His
apology was a five-minute address peppered with religious references
and praise of Allah. He asked that Allah have mercy upon him and his
dead brother and partner in crime, Tamerlan, but he made no mention of
the motive for the bombing.
He paused several
times as if struggling to maintain his composure. He faced the judge
while speaking but addressed himself to the victims.
Tsarnaev
admitted he carried out the bombing - "If there's any lingering doubt
about that, let there be no more" - and added: "I did do it along with
my brother."
Outside court, some bombing survivors said they doubted Tsarnaev's sincerity.
"It really does not change anything for me," Scott Weisberg said.
But
another survivor, Henry Borgard, said: "I was actually really happy
that he made the statement. I have forgiven him. I have come to a place
of peace and I genuinely hope that he does as well."
U.S.
Attorney Carmen Ortiz said Tsarnaev left important things unsaid: "He
didn't renounce terrorism. He didn't renounce violent extremism."
Tsarnaev
will probably be sent to the death row unit at the federal penitentiary
in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was
executed. It could take years or even decades for his appeals to work
their way through the courts.
In May, the jury
condemned the former college student to die for joining his older
brother in setting off the two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish
line and in killing an MIT police officer as they fled. Tamerlan, 26,
was killed during the getaway.
At his
sentencing, a somber-looking Tsarnaev, wearing a dark sport jacket with a
collared shirt and no tie, sat between his lawyers, his chair turned
toward the lectern from which the victims spoke. He picked at his beard
and gazed downward most of the time, only occasionally looking at the
victims.
"He can't possibly have had a soul to
do such a horrible thing," said Karen Rand McWatters, who lost a leg in
the attack and whose best friend, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, was
killed.
Campbell's mother, Patricia Campbell, looked across the room at Tsarnaev, seated about 20 feet away, and spoke directly to him.
"What you did to my daughter is disgusting," she said. "I don't know what to say to you. I think the jury did the right thing."
Rebekah Gregory, a Texas woman who lost a leg in the bombing, defiantly told Tsarnaev she is not his victim.
"While
your intention was to destroy America, what you have really
accomplished is actually quite the opposite - you've unified us," she
said, staring directly at Tsarnaev as he looked down.
"We
are Boston strong, we are America strong, and choosing to mess with us
was a terrible idea. So how's that for your VICTIM impact statement?"
Bill
Richard, whose 8-year-old son Martin was the youngest person killed in
the bombing, noted that his family would have preferred that Tsarnaev
receive a life sentence so that he could contemplate his crimes.
Richard said his family has chosen love, kindness and peace, adding: "That is what makes us different than him."
