Judge instructs jury in Boston death penalty trial

A judge delivered lengthy instructions Wednesday to the US jury who must decide whether to sentence Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death or life imprisonment for perpetrating the 2013 attacks.

The 21-year-old former student was found guilty last month of carrying out the April 15, 2013 bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 in one of the deadliest attacks in the US since 9/11.

The immigrant of Chechen descent was convicted on all 30 counts related to the bombings at the city's Marathon, and the murder of a police officer, a carjacking and a shootout while on the run in subsequent days.
Tsarnaev's convictions under federal law leave the jury only two sentencing options: the death penalty or life without parole.

"The choice between these very serious alternatives is yours and yours alone to make," Judge George O'Toole told the same 12-member jury who convicted Tsarnaev in April.

Seventeen of the convictions carry the death penalty, and O'Toole told the jury, who will complete a detailed 24-page verdict form, they must approach the sentencing decision "separately as to each count."

If they select the death penalty for just one count, that will be imposed regardless of whether they chose life imprisonment for others, he said.

"I stress to you the importance of giving careful and thorough consideration of all the evidence," the judge said.
Tsarnaev, dressed in his customary dark blazer throughout the two-month trial, sat back in his chair glancing slightly in the direction of O'Toole and the jurors as the judge read out his instructions.

The court room gallery was packed with victims, relatives, senior law enforcement figures and a large contingent of journalists.

- Closing statements to follow -

O'Toole told the jury they must weigh aggravating factors, which would support the death penalty, and mitigating factors, such as his age, which would suggest life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

After the judge's instructions, lawyers for the defense and prosecution are to present their closing statements.

The prosecution has portrayed Tsarnaev, who took US nationality a year before the attacks, as a cold-blooded terrorist who carried out the attacks motivated by hatred for his adopted country.
"This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged," Assistant US Attorney Nadine Pellegrini told the opening of the sentencing phase of his trial on April 21.

The "unbearable, indescribable, inexcusable, senseless" attacks, she said, proved Tsarnaev and his extremist ideology were "destined to become America's worst nightmare."

The defense instead portrayed his older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as the mastermind of the attacks, alleging he manipulated his frightened younger brother, who was a teenager at the time.

Lead defense attorney Judy Clarke has saved some of America's most notorious killers from death, including "Unabomber" serial murderer Theodore Kaczynski and Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted over the 9/11 attacks.

On Monday, the defense rested its case by bringing prominent American nun and anti-death penalty campaigner, Sister Helen Prejean, to testify that Tsarnaev has expressed sincere remorse for carrying out the attacks.

The revelation from Sister Prejean, who was portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by actress Susan Sarandon in the Hollywood movie "Dead Man Walking," was the first mention of the defendant expressing remorse.

The only emotion he has displayed was to wipe his eyes as a distraught aunt was removed from the courtroom, too overcome to testify.

Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police, leaving his brother to face punishment alone.