FollowThe second phase regarding Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s sentence will begin on April 21. The decision was announced on Friday April 10 by U.S. District Judge George O’Toole.
The trial was scheduled in such a way it wouldn’t coincide with the commemoration of the double bombing which took place on April 15 2013 close to the finish line. The set date also avoids coinciding with this year’s marathon which will take place on April 20.
The jury, consisting of 7 women and 5 men announced the verdict on Wednesday April 8. Tsarnaev was found guilty of 30 charges, including “conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and bombing of a public place”.
On April 15 2013, Dzhokhar now 21 and his late brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev set off two homemade bombs that took the lives of three people and injured 264 more. A few days after the attack, the two brothers killed a police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This second phase can be considered a mini trial. The same jury members, together with six alternates will return for the testimony and later decide is the accused gets the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole.
The defense will most likely continue with the argument that the accused doesn’t deserve the death penalty on the account that he wasn’t the primary offender. Dzhokhar’s lawyers will try to persuade the jury that he was just a teen under the influence of an older, more dominant brother that had become an Islam extremist and convinced his younger brother to help him with the bombing operation. However, over two days, the defense called only four witnesses.
Some believe that for the second phase of the trial, his lawyers will bring psychiatrists or other medical experts that will share the same opinion – that Tsarnaev’s youth was what made him vulnerable to his brother’s persuasion.
According to Brad Bailey, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Boston, the defense will most likely “try everything they can to save their client’s life”.
The prosecution, on the other hand, will try to convince the members of the jury that both brothers were equally involved in planning and putting the attack and the following crimes into effect.
Dzhokhar will get the death penalty only if all members of the jury agree unanimously, otherwise he will get life without parole.
Image Source: UPI
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