Tsarnaev guilty in Boston Marathon bombing case
BOSTON, Mass. (WPRI) — A federal jury has has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
The jury must now decide if he’ll face the death penalty or life in prison for the terror attack that killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Read a full list of the charges »
- Photos: Boston Marathon bombing trial
- Photos: Key players in Tsarnaev trial
Tsarnaev is accused of conspiring with his brother, Tamerlan, to build and plant two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line. Prosecutors say their intent was to retaliate against the United States for its military action in Muslim countries.
Defense attorneys admit the brothers committed the act, but say the now deceased Tamerlan swept his younger brother up into the plot.
Tamerlan, 26, died in a shootout with police during a getaway attempt days after the bombing.
The two brothers from Russia had lived in the Boston area for about a decade.
Three people died in the bombing – Martin Richard, 8, Lingzi Lu, 23, and Krystle Campbell, 29 – and more than 260 others were injured.
Tsarnaev is also charged in the killing of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier.
Leading up to the trial, jury selection ran for two months amid multiple motions filed by the defense to move the trial out of Boston. Attorneys believed they wouldn’t be able to find an unbiased jury in Massachusetts.
While Tsarnaev faces the death penalty if he’s convicted in federal court, that’s in contrast with the state of Massachusetts – which abolished the death penalty.