Boston Marathon Bomber Trial Update: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Found Guilty of all 30 Charges in Death Penalty Case
After deliberating for roughly 11 hours over the last two days, the jury in the Boston Marathon bombing trial found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts charged against him.
The 21-year-old convicted terrorist will now move on to the sentencing phase of his trial, where he will face the death penalty.
Jurors handed in the verdict Wednesday afternoon, convicting him of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place, among other charges. The charges also covered a carjacking that took place in the aftermath of the 2013 attack, the deadly shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, and a gunfight in Watertown, Massachusetts, in which Tsarnaev and his deceased brother tossed explosives at police.
Now it will be up to the same seven women and five men who sat on the jury to decide whether he would be sentenced to life in prison or death.
The second phase of the high profile trial may begin as early as Monday, tweeted court watcher Dan Hausle.
During the trial, defense lawyers argued that Tsarnaev participated in the Boston Marathon attack, which killed three people and injured 264 others on April 15, 2013, because he was under the influence of his older brother, Tamerlan, 26.
"There is no excuse. No one is trying to make one. Planting bombs at the Boston Marathon was a senseless act," said defense attorney Judy Clarke during her closing remarks on Monday, as reported by ABC News. "We are not asking you to excuse the conduct, but let's look at the varying roles. If not for Tamerlan, [the bombing] wouldn't have happened."
Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued that Clarke was trying to let her client "dodge full responsibility."
"He wanted to punish America. So that's what he did. He planted one bomb, his brother planted the other. It was a coordinated attack to maximize the terror," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty, according to USA Today.
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