US to seek death penalty for Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

[Shah-i-Kot]

US to seek death penalty for Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Attorney general Eric Holder authorises prosecutors to seek the maximum possible punishment against the 20-year-old

• Tom McCarthy in New York
• theguardian.com, Thursday 30 January 2014 20.01 GMT
• Jump to comments (…)

The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has authorised prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Justice Department has announced.
A trial date has not yet been set for Tsarnaev, 20, who was indicted in June on 30 federal counts, including 17 that carry the death penalty.
Prosecutors say Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, placed two bombs near the end of the marathon on 15 April 2013. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured in the attack. Tsarnaev is also accused of participating in the murder of a police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a confrontation with police after the bombing.
Fifty-seven per cent of Boston residents want a sentence of life without parole for Tsarnaev, compared with 33% who would like to see him receive the death penalty, according to a Boston Globe poll conducted in September.
Three prisoners have been executed under the federal death penalty since it was reinstated in 1988, and another 59 are on federal death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Many more have been executed under state death penalty laws. Massachusetts has a state ban on the death penalty, however, that does not apply to Tsarnaev because he is being tried federally.
If Tsarnaev is found guilty, a jury would have to reach unanimous agreement in order for a death sentence to be imposed.

[tor_khan]

'Targeting' the state is one form of protest, but people who kill indiscriminately must have a very low self-worth to begin with.

I find it hard to sympathise with that.

[Karachi]

There is no sympathy for people like him or his brother. They are murderers!

[Pakwatan]

There is no sympathy for people like him or his brother. They are murderers!

They got framed. Don't be a fool.

[Karachi]

They got framed. Don't be a fool.

no they didn't. any proof?

[Karachi]

I am not saying I believe the mainstream media, but I also dont believe all the conspiracy theorists out there

Of course I dont know exactly what happend in this case, but fact of the matter is there are enough extremists / terrorists nuts in our community that can do these things. There are daily terrorists attacks in a country like Pakistan, are these attacks also done by CIA or Israeli agents??? Open your eyes

[afghan]

Johar Tsarnaev didn't deny it. his mother only thinks they were framed. his other relatives didn't deny his involvement . its possible his older brother framed him.

[Admin Khan]

If he is found guilty for killing innocent civilians, then he should be punished to the fullest extent permissible by law, so other naive folks think twice before they get brainwashed and decide to go on these sprees.

[Manzareh]

He didn't let off the bombs, just type into google real truth about Boston bombs. Anybody that could testify against the prosecutors were hunted down killed or silenced. Don't be scared to be called a conspiracy theorist just because you choose to ask basic questions, the words conspiracy theory was first used to discredit the accounts of people that new the truth. Just because you conspire against what they feed you doesn't mean your conspiring against the truth.

[Manzareh]

Admin, when you day 'if he found guilty then he should be punished to the highest degree' if the CIA want to find a fly guilty they will!. People that speak like that usually think JFK was not assassinated by the FBI and ignore overwhelming evidence of 9-11.

[Shah-i-Kot]

'Targeting' the state is one form of protest, but people who kill indiscriminately must have a very low self-worth to begin with.

I find it hard to sympathise with that.

If he is found guilty for killing innocent civilians, then he should be punished to the fullest extent permissible by law, so other naive folks think twice before they get brainwashed and decide to go on these sprees.

Theoretically, one is innocent until proven guilty. However, the US justice system will most likely find Tsarnaev guilty despite a lack of solid forensic evidence. If there is no evidence linking him to the Boston marathon bombings, then by US law he ought to be set free.

Put the the Tsarnaev case, and compare it to James Holmes case who shot up a movie theater in Colorado (killing about 20 people I think) in 2012. Tsarnaev case has become a federal case whereas James Holmes case remained a usual criminal case without the federal government getting involved. Go figure then. It is simply because Tsarnaev is a Muslim, that the crime of the Bostom marathon bombing which he is being charged with is considered terrorism. James Holmes on the other hand simply was a deranged psycho murderer- his crime is not labeled under terrorism.

Now compare the seeking of the death penalty for Tsarnaev to the freeing of George Zimmerman for the proven killing of Trayvon Martin (he admits to killing him in self defense). Do you think if a black man killed a white teenage boy/girl, that he could have claimed self defense and gotten away like Zimmerman?