Tsarnaev Death Sentence: Did They Choose The Right Verdict?

Tsarnaev is facing the death penalty for his role in the bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon. As the 21-year-old looks to suffer the ultimate consequence for his actions, jurors still find no remorse in Tsarnaev.

In an effort to avert the death penalty, the defense tried to present Tsarnaev as an ignorant youth, or a young man mislead by his family members. But Tsarnaev would have to see his actions as wrong and convince the court. While no one can totally know what he was thinking, he mostly maintained a disinterested, disconnected demeanor.

Ann O’Neill of CNN noted how defense attorney Judy Clarke couldn’t save Tsarnaev from death.

“Even putting the best possible spin on it in, Clarke couldn’t say Tsarnaev was sorry. The best she could do was say he was on the road to ‘maturity’ and maybe some day being remorseful. She urged jurors to spare him in the hope that he might find redemption.”

Boston last dealt the death penalty in 2003 to Gary Sampson, a man still on death row. His behavior has only become worse over time. In prison, he’s assaulted people, bragged about his crimes, and been generally unruly. Tsarnaev was given the same verdict from the same Boston courthouse as Sampson.

The defense had no counter for testimonies of parents who’s children bled to death on the street and the tragedy brought to the lives of so many Boston residents from Tsarnaev’s actions.

There are some that worry Tsarnaev, like Sampson, could spend years on death row, attracting support and donations from those with a twisted sense admiration. ABC interviewed victims who felt that a spotlight shines on death row inmates and would hate that to be the result of the Tsarnaev verdict. Tsarnaev had already been collecting donations in jail from a batch of followers.

Robert Curley is a Boston man who told ABC why he opposes the death penalty for Tsarnaev, despite the murder of his son in 1997.

“Trust me, [as] for my son’s killers, I would murder them myself. But I’m opposed to the death penalty for multiple reasons now. One of them is that they become rock stars on death row. That’s the problem with the death penalty. They should have put Tsarnaev in a hole and let the world forget about him. Now we will hear about him nonstop.”

Newsy reports how a death penalty won’t necessarily lead to death, and how Tsarnaev’s case could be held up endlessly in court.

[Photo provided by FBI via Getty Images]
[Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images]