BOSTON — Now that a jury has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all counts in the Boston Marathon bombing, his trial moves onto a second phase.
The prosecution will be arguing that Tsarnaev get the death penalty for the bombing that killed three and murder of an MIT police officer. The defense will be (and essentially has already been) trying to spare the convicted bomber and get him life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The decision has been polarizing. Polls have shown that people in the generally liberal state of Massachusetts are against the death penalty, but this particular case is changing minds. Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984, but it is still an eligible punishment in Tsarnaev’s federal case.
Now the Boston Globe editorial board is making national headlines for its stance on the controversial topic.
“Spare Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the death penalty,” reads the opinion piece headline from the most-circulated New England newspaper.
The second paragraph reads:
For death-penalty opponents, of course, it’s a no-brainer: He should spend the rest of his life rotting in prison instead. Sentencing Tsarnaev to death would ensure endless appeals, substitute vengeance for justice, and risk letting him become a martyr.
The piece ends:
Tsarnaev obviously should spend the rest of his life in prison. His defense has already made a good case that he does not meet the exceptionally high standards for a federal execution.
Meanwhile the Globe’s competition, the Boston Herald, published an editorial staff piece on the other side of the issue.
“No mercy for Tsarnaev,” the Herald headline says.
This “refugee,” who took all that this country had to offer and then turned a beloved patch of Boylston Street into a killing ground, has now been labeled by a jury of his peers the cold-blooded killer that he is.
