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12/22/2024 11:21:52 pm

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'Terrorist' Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Life in the Hands of Jury; Marathon Bombing Deliberations Starting

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

(Photo : Reuters) Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is pictured in this handout photo presented as evidence by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, Massachusetts on March 23, 2015. Tsarnaev was heavily influenced by al Qaeda literature and lectures, some of which was found on his laptop, a counterterrorism expert testified at his trial on March 23, 2015.

Boston Marathon Bombing

(Photo : REUTERS/Jane Flavell Collins) A courtroom sketch shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

On May 13, 4:05 p.m. ET, jurors of the Boston Marathon bombing case started deliberations, only to emerge, 50 minutes later, without a verdict yet, The Associated Press reported the same day.

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Jury deliberations are scheduled to reconvene today, May 14. Members of the jury will decide whether or not Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will get the lethal injection or spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison.

AP reported that Tsarnaev will only get the death penalty because of his participation in the 2013 attack of the annual Boston Marathon, upon a unanimous decision of the jury.

The deciding jury can be recalled as the same set of people who found the defendant guilty of all 30 counts against him.

Tsarnaev's prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mellin, urged the jury in his closing statement to remember how Tsarnaev carried out the attack during the anniversary of the Revolutionary War to make a political statement. He also encouraged the jury to give Tsarnaev the death penalty that he deserves, Time reported. 

On the other hand, Tsarnaev's lawyer Judy Clarke, while admitting that there is no excuse to her client's actions, asked the jury to try and realize that the "invisible kid" was brainwashed by his older brother Tamerlan.

Tamerlan, said to be the mastermind of the Boston Marathon bombing, was described as a radical and worked to convince his younger brother that a holy war was necessary.

CNN reported May 14 that if Tsarnaev's gets life in prison, he will serve his sentence in the United States Penitentiary Administrative-Maximum Facility in Colorado, the same facility that hosted other notorious terrorists like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. The news outlet described the penitentiary as home to "the worst of the worst."

The Boston Marathon bombings occurred on April 15, 2013, taking the lives of three people and left approximately 264 injured.

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