Dzhokhar Tsarnaev found guilty in Boston Marathon bombings

Posted 2015-04-08 19:05 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

Tsarnaev, 21, helped carry out the attack with his late older brother, Tamerlan, jurors found. The bombing killed three people and wounded more than 260 at the race’s finish line.

The jury — made up of five men and seven women — deliberated for roughly 11 hours before reaching a verdict Wednesday.

Tsarnaev, who was charged with and found guilty on all 30 criminal counts — 17 of which carry a possible penalty of death — had pleaded not guilty. He would found guilty not only in the bombing but on charges related to the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer Sean Collier in the bombing’s aftermath.

His defense raged that his brother was the mastermind, leading then-19-year-old Tsarnaev astray.

“If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened,” defense attorney Judy Clarke in closing arguments.

However, prosecutors asserted that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev knew what he was doing and made a coldblooded decision to be part of the attack.

“This was a cold, calculated terrorist act. This was intentional. It was bloodthirsty. It was to make a point,” U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty said. “It was to tell America that ‘We will not be terrorized by you anymore. We will terrorize you.'”

Sentencing is set to begin April 13. The jury will decide whether to give Tsarnaev death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.