Boston Marathon Bomber Trial Update: Prosecutors Rest Case in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Death Penalty Trial
The prosecution in the Boston Marathon bombing trial rested their case Thursday afternoon after calling several witnesses who gave gruesome testimonies about the 2013 attack.
Earlier this month, convicted terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty of 30 charges for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place. The charges also covered a carjacking that took place in the aftermath of the attack, the deadly shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, and a gunfight in Watertown, Massachusetts, in which Tsarnaev and his now-deceased brother tossed explosives at police.
During the original trial, defense lawyers argued that Tsarnaev participated in the attack that killed three people and injured over 260 others on April 15, 2013, because he was under the influence of his older brother, Tamerlan. Now, it is up to the same jury to decide whether Tsarneav should face life in prison or death.
One of the witnesses called on Thursday was Dr. David King, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital who worked in the U.S. Army as a combat surgeon in Iraq and Afghanistan. While on the stand, he said that treating the marathon victims reminded him of working in a war zone.
"I arrived just as the first wave of casualties had shown up," he said, according to CNN. "I looked across the patients and I knew immediately, without anyone having to tell me, exactly what the wounding mechanism was."
Heather Abbott, who lost half of her leg in the attack, also testified about the moments after the two pressure cooker bombs went off.
"I saw blood pouring out of my foot," she said.
Steve Woolfenden, a biomedical researcher for the Novartis Institutes, was the final witness called by federal prosecutors on Thursday, reports The Boston Globe.
"I was completely terrified because I didn't know if I was ever going to see my son again. There was blood all over the sidewalk, all around me," he said.
The defense will began making their case as to why Tsarnaev's life should be spared on Monday.
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