Bostonians are coming off a much-needed weekend of reflection following the death sentence verdict of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Monday morning, Professors Daniel Medwed of Northeastern University Law and Robert Bloom from Boston College Law joined Morning Edition host Bob Seay to review the importance of the verdict and future developments in the case.
Last Friday, we learned the 12-member federal jury unanimously agreed to sentence Tsarnaev to death after nearly 13 hours of deliberations. Jurors voted for death on six of the 17 federal counts.
Interestingly, several polls taken in Boston prior to the verdict indicated many were against a death penalty sentence. While nationally, the latest CBS news polls taken days before the sentencing indicated 60 percent of Americans favored the death penalty for Tsarnarv, while 30 percent did not.
Medwed, who had written an Op-ed piece for the Boston Globe that appeared in Saturday’s paper tells WGBH , “we learned a lot throughout the process of the trial, the events of that day and what exactly happened. “ In addition, Medwed says “the fact that we lived through it, and managed to have a terrorism trial unfold in Boston without major incident, “ is significant.
Professor Bloom says, “ the process itself protected the powerless against the powerful, the notion of the Code of Hammurabi .” However, he says he’s disappointed in the justice aspect of the verdict.
Both professors have been appearing on WGBH with Seay throughout the trial to analyze day-to-day proceedings and developments.
To listen to the entire interview with host Bob Seay, click on the audio file above.
