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Jury sentences Boston Bomber to death for marathon attack

by Laurel J. Sweet, Joe Dwinell
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is to be executed for the terrorist bombing attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon that claimed three young lives, maimed 17 and injured hundreds, a 12-member jury ruled today.

The verdict against Tsarnaev, who'll turn 22 in July, was announced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr.'s courtroom clerk Paul Lyness. Tsarnaev showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost a third of her left leg in the bombing, said today she's "happy with the verdict." She added, "My heart goes out to everyone in the survivor community and to the victims' families."

Only three of the 12 jurors bought into the defense argument that Tsarnaev was influenced by his older brother Tamerlan. The jurors unanimously agreed that Tsarnaev showed no remorse and they unanimously voted to put him to death.

Tsarnaev will be formally sentenced by O'Toole this summer after survivors and loved ones of the victims have the opportunity to present impact statements.

Tsarnaev will also be afforded the chance to speak. He chose not to take the stand in his own defense during the trial -- a factor jurors were not allowed to consider or even discuss amongst themselves, per O'Toole's orders.

Tsarnaev is expected to remain incarcerated locally until after the sentencing, when he will be delivered to the USP Terre Haute prison in Indiana, where he will be the youngest person on federal death row.

U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said today in a statement that "Tsarnaev coldly and callously perpetrated a terrorist attack" in Boston.

“We know all too well that no verdict can heal the souls of those who lost loved ones, nor the minds and bodies of those who suffered life-changing injuries from this cowardly attack," Lynch said. "But the ultimate penalty is a fitting punishment for this horrific crime and we hope that the completion of this prosecution will bring some measure of closure to the victims and their families.  We thank the jurors for their service, the people of Boston for their vigilance, resilience and support and the law enforcement community in Boston and throughout the country for their important work.”

The seven women and five men, who reached their verdict after 14 hours of deliberations, convicted the former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth sophomore on April 8 of a 30-count indictment that included the April 15, 2013, bombing murders of marathon spectators Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester, Lingzi Lu, 23, a Boston University graduate statistics student from China, and restaurant manager Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, a Medford native.

Tsarnaev was also held responsible for the shooting death of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, 27, three days after the marathon massacre, when the FBI went public with photos of Tsarnaev and his late older brother Tamerlan, 26, as their terror suspects.

Tsarnaev's lawyers maintain it was Tamerlan who shot Collier three times in the head as he sat in his cruiser on the Cambridge campus.

The brothers tried, but failed, to wrest Collier's sidearm from him with plans to head to New York City with more explosives.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died April 19, 2013, following a brutal firefight with Watertown police, during which he was run over by his brother as he fled the shootout.

The jurors' identities have never been disclosed. They have been a part of the epic case since they were summonsed in early January, and heard 10 weeks of testimony between the separate guilt and sentencing phases - much of it from survivors and amputees with memories so painful and haunting that jurors openly sobbed in the courtroom. 
 

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