Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev found guilty

From the Telegraph 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty of carrying out the 2013 bombing at the finish line of the Boston marathon.

The 12-person jury took a day and a half to find the 21-year-old guilty, using a 32-page verdict form of 30 counts related to the attacks, the murder of a police officer, a car jacking and shootout while on the run. He was found guilty of 30 criminal counts tied to the deadly April 15 2013, attack on the city’s best-attended sporting event.

The guilty verdict means his trial enters a new phase where the Boston jury will be asked to decide whether the 21-year-old should face the death penalty. Seventeen of the charges – one to 10 and 12 to 18 – carry the possibility of the death penalty.

Jurors convicted Tsarnaev after listening to a month of emotional testimony from survivors of the attack and watching graphic videos of the moment a pair of homemade explosives ripped through the crowds.

Throughout the trial US government prosecutors described Tsarnaev and his elder brother Tamerlan, who died in a shoot-out with police days after the bombing, as hardened terrorists who wanted to kill civilians “to punish America” for its wars in the Muslim world. 

The defence did not dispute that Tsarnaev, who was 19 at the time of the attack, was responsible for his part in the bombing and did little to counter the government’s version of the facts.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers argued instead that Tamerlan, the elder brother, was the mastermind of the plot. They portrayed the younger Tsarnaev as a teenager who was in thrall to his older sibling and followed him into terror.

The defence called only four witnesses during the first phase of the trial and are focused instead on the forthcoming fight to prevent Tsarnaev from being executed.

Both prosecution and defence will call new witnesses and make fresh arguments as they debate whether Tsarnaev should be put to death by lethal injection or sentenced instead to a life in prison.

Ultimately, the decision will be in the hands of the jury, who must vote unanimously in order to impose a death sentence. 

Look above – he has grown a little beard in prison. Not quite so boy band now!