The parents of the boy who was the youngest to die in the attack on the Boston Marathon asked federal prosecutors to abandon their effort to sentence the bomber to death, in a statement on the front page of the Boston Globe on Friday.
‘Seek life sentence’ Bill and Denise Martin, parents of 8-year-old Martin Richard, instead urged the U.S. Department of Justice to seek a deal in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted last week of the 2013 attack, would waive his appeal rights in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives,” the couple wrote in a statement titled “To end the anguish, drop the death penalty.” The second phase of Tsarnaev’s trial is due to begin on Tuesday.
