The jury reached a verdict in the sentencing of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday, May 15. The group of five men and seven women came to an agreement of the death penalty more than four months after the trial first began on Jan. 5.
The former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student will be put to death by lethal injection by the jury's decision, according to the Associated Press.
The sentencing followed an earlier decision from the group of 12 jurors. On April 8, the jury announced that they had found Tsarnaev, 21, guilty on all charges from the bloody day in April 2013. Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev set off bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 250.
Tamerlan, who was 26 at the time, was killed by police officers a few days after the April 15 bombing, dying in a headline-making manhunt. Dzhokhar was found alive by police, arrested after hiding in a boat in the backyard of a home in Watertown, Mass.
Dzhokhar's 30 guilty charges included 17 counts that can hold the death penalty, such as conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to bomb a place of public use resulting in death.
There was widespread conflict of public opinion about whether the young man should be given the death penalty or not. Bill and Denise Richard, the parents of 8-year-old victim Martin, made headlines last month when they spoke out against their son's killer receiving the death penalty.
"Our family has grieved, buried our young son, battled injuries, and endured numerous surgeries — all while trying to rebuild lives that will never be the same," the couple wrote in a column for The Boston Globe. "We are in favor of and would support the Department of Justice in taking the death penalty off the table in exchange for the defendant spending the rest of his life in prison without any possibility of release and waiving all of his rights to appeal."
"We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives," the Richards added. "We hope our two remaining children do not have to grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them, which years of appeals would undoubtedly bring."
