Sentenced to death

By Gregory L. Tracy and Christopher S. Pineo
The Pilot
Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston

A jury in Federal court in Boston has sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death on six counts related to the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. The jury had deliberated for over 14 hours over the course of three days.

On April 8, a jury in Federal court in Boston found Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts related to 2013 bombing. They found that Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted the bombs that exploded near the finish line at the marathon, maiming and wounding more than 260 people and killing 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester; 29-year-old Medford native Krystle Campbell; and Lu Lingzi, 23, a Chinese national studying at Boston University. Later, the pair killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier as they attempted to make an escape from the Boston area.

Having found him guilty the jury had been asked to decide whether Tsarnaev should face death or life in prison without parole.

While the question of capital punishment for Tsarnaev divided the local community, several high profile voices spoke out against the death penalty for the Marathon Bomber.

On the day Tsarnaev was convicted, the four diocesan bishops of Massachusetts released a statement reiterating Church teaching on the death penalty and urging life imprisonment.

"The defendant in this case has been neutralized and will never again have the ability to cause harm," the bishops wrote.