Judges Vacate Boston Marathon Bomber’s Original Death Sentence
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
The 2013 Boston Marathon bomber had his death sentenced overturned due to potential biases in the jury.
The incident, that killed three people and injured more than 250, was orchestrated by Dzhokar Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. According to The Journal, after the brothers set off the bombs during the Boston Marathon, their crimes didn’t stop there. Three days later, the two executed an on-duty officer sitting in his parked car, attempting to take his gun.
Almost an hour later, the brothers carjacked a man with the intention of going to New York to set off more bombs. They forced him to stay in the car and made him stop to withdraw $800 from his account. The driver was able to get away and alert an employee at a nearby gas station.
The two managed to flee the gas station but were caught by the cops in the middle of the Boston suburbs which led to a shoot-out. Dzhokar fled the scene after his brother was killed, and it wasn’t until the next day where he was caught hiding in a boat in the backyard of someone’s home.
“The U.S. Government is killing out innocent civilians but most of you already know that,” Tsarnaev wrote on the walls of the boat. “We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all…”
Dzhokar Tsarnaev was found guilty of 30 counts, including using weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy, and much more. In 2015, he was sentenced to death, however, the U.S. Federal Appeals Court say that the judge who handled the case didn’t properly screen the jurors for possible biases.
The judges ordered a new trial for Tsarnaev to see if he should still be executed. According to CBS News, the family of the youngest victim, an 8-year-old boy, said that they weren’t in favor of the death penalty back in 2015.
The death penalty has always been a controversial subject for the country. Some argue that it’s only fair for someone that took a life to have their own life taken. Others argue that the murderer would easily be escaping their punishment by being executed.
In the state of Massachusetts, the death penalty is banned unless the defendant pleads guilty. The state hasn’t seen an execution since 1984 in the Commonwealth v Colon-Cruz case. The general cost of the death penalty can cost hundreds of thousands more than a noncapital case, in some states it can cost at least $1 million more.
It’s natural to want someone who committed such a detrimental act to receive the most painful punishment possible. Nonetheless, it’s much more complicated that just sentencing someone to be killed. Tsarnaev will remain in prison, but the new trial will simply determine if he should be sentenced to death or live the rest of his life behind bars.