The jurors today recommended the sentence for 29-year-old Iftekhar Murtaza.
Prosecutors say Murtaza wanted to kill ex-girlfriend Shayona Dhanak's family to try to win her back after she ended their two-year relationship citing her Hindu family's opposition to her dating a Muslim.
Murtaza testified that he did not kill the family members but fled after two other men attacked Dhanaks' home for money in 2007.
That night, the house was set on fire. The charred, stabbed bodies of Dhanak's father and sister were found the next day in a park.