BOSTON — 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 on Friday condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 attack.
In a sweeping rejection of the defense case, the jury found that death was the appropriate punishment for six of 17 capital counts — all six related to Mr. Tsarnaev’s planting of a pressure-cooker bomb on Boylston Street, which his lawyers never disputed. Mr. 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.” ...
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 favored life in prison for Mr. Tsarnaev.
Many respondents said that life in prison for one so young would be a fate worse than death, and some worried that execution would make him a martyr.
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 ...
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