Update 3:00 p.m.:
As Department of Public Works crews worked overnight to clean up in the hours after the running of the 119th Boston Marathon, attention turns back to the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted of setting off bombs near the finish line. The jury in the Boston Marathon bombing case today begins deliberating his sentence, which includes the possibility of death.
The penalty phase of the trial is expected to last up to a month, and maybe more. Jurors will relive the tragedy of the April 15 bombings and its brutal results over and over again for several more weeks.
The prosecution is arguing for the ultimate sentence for the four lives lost and the 260 that were maimed. The defense team — as they have since the beginning of this trial — will argue the defendant was under the influence of his older, domineering brother Tamerlan, and they are expected to produce witnesses to corroborate this contention.
Hovering over the trial is the widely disseminated appeal from the parents of 8-year-old Martin Richard to spare Tsarnaev’s life. The jury was warned by Judge O'Toole not to read, watch or listen to anything connected to the trial.
A federal death sentence requires a unanimous verdict. The Tsarnaev defense may be hoping that one or more of the 12 jurors at least heard the appeal from the family of the boy who perished from a bomb set by the defendant.
— Phillip Martin
