Boston Marathon bombing trial: Jurors must now decide between life or death for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Sentencing phase of trial expected to take up to a month
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Your support makes all the difference.Life or death. Imprisonment inside a federal jail without the chance of ever coming out, or else execution by means of an injection of lethal chemicals.
These are two options being considered by jurors as the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev enters the sentencing phase.
The same jurors who decided that the young Chechen-American was guilty of planting the bombs that left three people dead and injured more than 260, will now also decide his ultimate fate.
Prosecutors seeking the death penalty will on Tuesday outline their opening arguments, claiming the 21-year-old Tsarnaev was a full and equal partner in the crime that rocked the city of Boston two years ago and not simply a troubled accomplice in a plot hatched by his brother to punish the US for its military actions in Muslim nations.
At the same time, Tsarnaev’s legal team, led by Judy Clarke, will insist that the young woman was heavily and unremittingly under the influence of 26-year-old Tamerlan, who died following a gunfight with police.
The decision to be made by jurors may be complicated by a number of factors.
The sentencing phase is taking place almost precisely two years after the blasts, the presence at this weekend’s race of so many of the survivors of the 2013 attack a powerful reminder of the vicious devastation the bombs planted at the finishing line left.
At the same time, many in the city want to move on, to put the events behind them and do not want a long, drawn-out schedule of appeals over a death sentence to get in the way of that process. Many in the state of Massachusetts, which does not have the death penalty for crimes prosecuted by the state, believe that the 21-year-old’s life should be spared.
Among those in that camp are Bill and Denise Richard, the couple whose eight-year-old son Martin was killed and whose daughter was badly injured. Writing last week in the Boston Globe, the couple said they would prefer that Tsarnaev be jailed without the chance of parole.
“We hope our two remaining children do not have to grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them, which years of appeals would undoubtedly bring,” they said.
Reports say that the sentencing phase of the trial could take up to four weeks as the prosecutors and defence call various witnesses and experts. Perhaps then, Boston will have some peace.
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