 "Boston Marathon bomber sentenced to death")
Two years after bombs in two backpacks transformed the Boston Marathon from a sunny rite of spring to a smoky battlefield with bodies dismembered, a federal jury has condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 attack.
In a sweeping rejection of the defence case, the jury found that death was the appropriate punishment for six of 17 capital counts - all six related to Tsarnaev's planting of a pressure-cooker bomb on Boylston Street, which his lawyers never disputed. Tsarnaev, 21, stood stone-faced in court, his hands folded in front of him, as the verdict was read, his lawyers standing grimly at his side.
Immediate reaction was mostly subdued.
"Happy is not the word I would use," said Karen Brassard, who suffered grievous leg injuries in the bombing. "There's nothing happy about having to take somebody's life. I'm satisfied, I'm grateful that they came to that conclusion, because for me I think it was the just conclusion."
She said she understood that all-but-certain appeals meant the case could drag out over years if not decades. "But right now," she said, "it feels like we can take a breath and kind of actually breathe again."
The bombings two years ago turned one of this city's most cherished athletic events into a grim tragedy - the worst terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. Three people were killed, and 17 people lost at least one leg. More than 240 others sustained serious injuries.
Last month, after deliberating for 11 hours, the jury found Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 charges against him in connection with the bombings and the death a few days later of a fourth person, an MIT police officer. The same jury spent 14 hours over three days deliberating the sentence.
With its decision, the jury rejected virtually every argument that the defence put forth, including the centerpiece of its case - that Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, had held a malevolent sway over him and led him into committing the crimes.
According to verdict forms that the jurors completed, only three of the 12 jurors believed that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had acted under his brother's influence.
Beyond that, the jury put little stock in any part of the defence. Only two jurors believed that Tsarnaev had expressed sorrow and remorse for his actions, a stinging rebuke to the assertion by Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and renowned death penalty opponent, that he was "genuinely sorry" for what he had done.
When the jury entered the courtroom at 3:10 pm, the forewoman passed an envelope to Judge George A O'Toole Jr of United States District Court, who had presided over the case. Jurors remained standing while the clerk read aloud the 24-page verdict form, which took 20 minutes. It was not clear until the end that the sentence was death, though all signs along the way pointed in that direction.
Not a sound was heard in the packed courtroom throughout the proceedings. Those in attendance -survivors, victims' families, the public, the news media - had been sternly warned that any outburst would amount to contempt of court.
The Tsarnaev verdict goes against the grain in Massachusetts, which has no death penalty for state crimes. Throughout the trial, polls also showed that residents overwhelmingly favoured life in prison for Tsarnaev.
But all the jurors in his case had to be "death qualified" - willing to impose the death penalty to serve. In that sense, the jury was not representative of the state.
Mayor Martin J Walsh said in a statement that the sentencing brought "a small amount of closure to the survivors, families and all impacted by the violent and tragic events". His statement avoided explicit praise of the verdict.
In a sweeping rejection of the defence case, the jury found that death was the appropriate punishment for six of 17 capital counts - all six related to Tsarnaev's planting of a pressure-cooker bomb on Boylston Street, which his lawyers never disputed. Tsarnaev, 21, stood stone-faced in court, his hands folded in front of him, as the verdict was read, his lawyers standing grimly at his side.
Immediate reaction was mostly subdued.
"Happy is not the word I would use," said Karen Brassard, who suffered grievous leg injuries in the bombing. "There's nothing happy about having to take somebody's life. I'm satisfied, I'm grateful that they came to that conclusion, because for me I think it was the just conclusion."
She said she understood that all-but-certain appeals meant the case could drag out over years if not decades. "But right now," she said, "it feels like we can take a breath and kind of actually breathe again."
The bombings two years ago turned one of this city's most cherished athletic events into a grim tragedy - the worst terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. Three people were killed, and 17 people lost at least one leg. More than 240 others sustained serious injuries.
Last month, after deliberating for 11 hours, the jury found Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 charges against him in connection with the bombings and the death a few days later of a fourth person, an MIT police officer. The same jury spent 14 hours over three days deliberating the sentence.
With its decision, the jury rejected virtually every argument that the defence put forth, including the centerpiece of its case - that Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, had held a malevolent sway over him and led him into committing the crimes.
According to verdict forms that the jurors completed, only three of the 12 jurors believed that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had acted under his brother's influence.
Beyond that, the jury put little stock in any part of the defence. Only two jurors believed that Tsarnaev had expressed sorrow and remorse for his actions, a stinging rebuke to the assertion by Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and renowned death penalty opponent, that he was "genuinely sorry" for what he had done.
When the jury entered the courtroom at 3:10 pm, the forewoman passed an envelope to Judge George A O'Toole Jr of United States District Court, who had presided over the case. Jurors remained standing while the clerk read aloud the 24-page verdict form, which took 20 minutes. It was not clear until the end that the sentence was death, though all signs along the way pointed in that direction.
Not a sound was heard in the packed courtroom throughout the proceedings. Those in attendance -survivors, victims' families, the public, the news media - had been sternly warned that any outburst would amount to contempt of court.
The Tsarnaev verdict goes against the grain in Massachusetts, which has no death penalty for state crimes. Throughout the trial, polls also showed that residents overwhelmingly favoured life in prison for Tsarnaev.
But all the jurors in his case had to be "death qualified" - willing to impose the death penalty to serve. In that sense, the jury was not representative of the state.
Mayor Martin J Walsh said in a statement that the sentencing brought "a small amount of closure to the survivors, families and all impacted by the violent and tragic events". His statement avoided explicit praise of the verdict.
©2015 The New York Times News Service