Boston Marathon Bomber Trial Update: Juror Would Not Have Voted Death Penalty, Pending Bombing Victims' Stance
One of the jurors in the Boston Marathon bombing trial says he probably would not have agreed to sentence bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death had he known that the families of some victims were in favor of giving him a life sentence.
Earlier this year, Tsarnaev was found guilty of 30 charges and sentenced to death for his role in the bombings on April 15, 2013, which killed four people and wounded 264 others. The 22-year-old convicted terrorist was then sentenced to death by a jury on May 15.
On Monday, Kevan Fagan, 23, became the first juror in the high profile case to speak publicly about the trial. During an interview with Boston's NPR news station WBUR-FM, Fagan admitted that he likely would have changed his vote in the penalty phase had he been aware that the parents, who lost their 8-year-old son Martin Richard in the attack, oppose the death penalty.
"If I had known that, I probably -- I probably would change my vote," Fagan told WBUR's Jack Lepiarz and David Boeri. "But then again, if I knew that, I wouldn't be on the jury either," he added since the jurors were ordered to avoid media coverage of the trial.
Fagan said he believed the defense claim that Tsarnaev was influenced by his now deceased older brother, Tamerlan, and that Tamerlan spearheaded the attack. Still, Fagan says that Tsarnaev deserves the death penalty because "he still chose to leave that bomb there for about 4-and-a-half minutes. So it's hard to get away from that and the damage and strife that it caused."
Fagan added that he is the co-author of a new online book titled "Juror 83 - The Tsarnaev Trial: 34 Days That Changed Me." His book is expected to be released at the end of September.
Also on Monday, a federal judge ruled against The Boston Globe's motion to publicly release the names of all jurors. In the ruling, the judge said the list would remain sealed while the defense seeks to file an appeal for a new trial. The judge also stated that if the jurors' names are publicized, then reporters will interview them, which would muddle the inquiry with "headlines and evening news."
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