Bomber Death

From Yahoo:

"U.S. to seek death penalty for accused Boston Marathon bomber"

Accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be put to death if he is found guilty of planting bombs that killed three people and wounded 264 at the Boston Marathon last year, the U.S. government's chief prosecutor said on Thursday. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that he was authorizing trial prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Tsarnaev, who is charged with committing one of the largest attacks on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001. "The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision," Holder said. Holder had faced a Friday deadline for deciding whether to seek the death penalty as part of Tsarnaev's upcoming trial in Boston. Government prosecutors said in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Boston that reasons for Holder's decision included that the killings were premeditated, cruel, and that Tsarnaev had shown a lack of remorse. "One way or another, based on the evidence, Tsarnaev will die in prison," Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said. A trial date has not yet been set for Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Holder's decision immediately drew fire from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which pointed out the case would be prosecuted in a state that had scrapped the death penalty decades ago. A Boston Globe survey found last year that 57 percent of Boston residents favored life in prison for Tsarnaev, if he is convicted, with 33 percent in favor of execution. Only three people have been executed as the result of a federal capital case since 1988, when the United States reinstated the federal death penalty, including Oklahoma City federal building bomber Timothy McVeigh in 2001. Prosecutors say that Tsarnaev, 20, and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan planted a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the race's crowded finish line on April 15, 2013, killing three people - including an 8-year-old boy. The blast also wounded 264 others, many of whom lost limbs. Three nights later, the ethnic Chechen brothers killed a university police officer and later engaged in a shootout with police that left Tamerlan dead, prosecutors say. Dzhokhar was later found hiding in a boat in which he scrawled several phrases, including "we Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all", according to prosecutors. Austin Sarat, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, said the nature of the case probably left the Justice Department little choice but to seek a capital prosecution. If the harm is unusual, if the harm is dramatic, gruesome, and devastating, it is often very hard for any other factor to outweigh it," he said. "I'm not surprised by this decision." Tsarnaev's attorneys have argued against a possible death sentence, in part because they claim he was following the lead of his older brother. They have also accused the government of throwing up unfair obstacles to hinder preparation of their client's defense, including seeking to rush the start of trial and not sharing important evidence. Tsarnaev's defense attorney Miriam Conrad declined to comment on Holder's decision on Thursday.

Holder has said that he is not a proponent of the death penalty because he believes its value as a deterrent is questionable, but since becoming attorney general in 2009, he has authorized prosecutors to seek the death penalty in 36 cases, according to the Justice Department. Legal experts said that if Tsarnaev is convicted, the jury would ultimately decide whether to apply the death penalty or a lesser sentence like life in prison. The blasts killed 8-year-old Martin Richard as well as Krystle Campbell, 29, and Chinese national Lu Lingzi, 23. Tsarnaev is also accused in the shooting death of Sean Collier, 27, the university police officer.

 

^ He should get the death penalty for his terrorist act. I'm just glad that the US (Federally and some states.) ^

http://news.yahoo.com/u-seek-death-penalty-accused-marathon-bomber-tsarnaev-192640895.html