Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev targeted men, women and children at the marathon because he wanted to terrorise the United States on a day when the eyes of the world would be on Boston, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday in closing arguments.
Tsarnaev is charged with conspiring with his older brother, Tamerlan, to bomb the marathon in April 2013. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line. Dzhokhar could face the death penalty if convicted; Tamerlan was killed in a gunbattle with police days after the bombing.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday morning.
“He chose a day when there would be civilians on the sidewalks. He and his brother targeted those civilians, men, woman and children, because he wanted to make a point. He wanted to terrorize this country. He wanted to punish America for what it was doing to his people,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aloke Chakravarty said. “So that’s what he did.”
Defense attorney Judy Clarke countered by arguing, as she did at the trial’s outset, that Tsarnaev took part in the attack but that he did so under the malevolent influence of his now-dead older brother. Clarke repeatedly referred to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a “kid” and a “teenager.”
“We don’t deny that Dzhokhar fully participated in the events, but if not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened,” Clarke said.
Chakravarty showed the jury a photo of Tsarnaev standing just feet behind 8-year-old victim Martin Richard, his family, and other children who were standing on a metal barricade to watch the runners cross the finish line. He said Tsarnaev placed his bomb right there, the second bomb that would explode that day.
“These children weren’t innocent to him. They were American. ... Of all the places that he could have placed the bomb, he placed it right here,” Chakravarty said.
Chakravarty also played a gruesome video of the aftermath of the first bombing, which showed gravely injured people scattered on the sidewalk and huge pools of blood. As first responders and volunteers try to help the injured, screams and moans punctuate the video, along with shouts of “Help!”
