Tsarnaev gets death penalty for Boston Marathon bombing

Boston, May 15: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a college student who along with his brother planted twin bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, was on Saturday sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 attacks, the worst terrorist assault on American soil since September 11.

It took the jury 14 hours to reach the decision. Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 charges in the bombing and its aftermath. The jury decided in favour of death penalty, despite a sharp division in the State on death penalty.

"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," Attorney General Loretta E Lynch said after the announcement of the death penalty.

In reaching its decision, the jury found that Tsarnaev had shown no remorse for his actions, and it rejected the defence argument that his older brother, Tamerlan, a self-radicalised jihadist, had brainwashed him into joining in the bombings.

It was the first time a federal jury had sentenced a terrorist to death in the post-September 11 era, according to Kevin McNally, director of the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which coordinates the defence in capital punishment cases.

Tsarnaev stood, his hands folded in front of him, as the jurors made their way out of the courtroom. Three people were killed and 264 others wounded in the twin blasts.

It also killed Martin Richard, an eight-year-old boy from Dorchester who was watching the marathon with his family just a few feet from the second bomb.

PTI