Almost an unfulfilled task

At the hearing in the case of Johar Tsarnaev, lawyers will try to save him from the death penalty

In Boston, the second stage of the process in the case of Johar Tsarnaev began. It has the same jury, which recently found him guilty of complicity in the organization and execution of a massacre at the Boston marathon, determine the measure of punishment of the perpetrator - a lifelong conclusion or death penalty.

In the terrorist attack, arranged by the Tsarnaev brothers at the finish of the Boston marathon two years ago, three people were killed, including an eight -year -old boy. Two hundred and sixty were injured; Among the wounded there are those who lost the upper or lower extremities and partially lost their vision. Seventeen out of thirty accusations against Johar Tsarnaev provide the highest measure of punishment, on which the prosecutors insist. The defendant was found guilty for all thirty points.

On Tuesday in court, the relatives of Sean Collier , an employee of the security service of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who three days after the attack, was killed by the Tsarnaev, apparently, in order to seize it with weapons. The words of witnesses made a strong impression on the jury, some of them cried. Immediately after the performance of the Jury, a photograph was shown a photograph that had not previously been demonstrated in court. A frame from a video made in prison about three and a half months after the attack, captured Tsarnaev, poked his right hand in the observation chamber. “Tsarnaev set the goal of becoming an unprecedented nightmare for America,” the prosecutor Nadin Pellegrini said after the photograph of the photograph. “A deeply indifferent, unequivable. The stale and heartless type, who does not care about human life. The death penalty for such a person will be a correct and fair punishment.” The accusation will try to put this thought into the consciousness of the jury through the testimony of all the victims in the terrorist attack that it intends to call. The emphasis will be placed on the demonstration of a criminal act, the sadistic method of its execution, terrible physical suffering, which probably experienced innocent sacrifices in the last minutes of life.

The defense considered the evidence presented by the observation camera to answer the very next day, on Wednesday. The lawyers demanded that the court show a non -separate reporting frame, but the accompanying episode for about 15 minutes. On returning to the prison camera, handcuffs and foot shackles are removed from Tsarnaev. For some time he moves aimlessly and detached back and forth. Then he climbs to the metal trestle, looks into the pupil of the camera, folds his fingers in the form of a Latin letter V, meaning Victory, victory. And only then defiantly pokes the middle finger, as it were, in the eye of an invisible observer. The context makes it clear, the lawyers claimed that we are dealing not with the monster, but with a bored teenager who decided to blow in.

The parents of the deceased Martin Richard and his sister Jane, who was torn off his leg with an explosion, sent an open letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a call to conclude an agreement with Tsanaev, according to which he will preserve his life, but he will spend the rest of it in prison without the right to appeal and early release. Spouses Richard dream that Johar Tsarnaev will completely disappear from their life as soon as possible. They do not want further torment and experiences in connection with endless appeals, which will inevitably follow in response to a death sentence.

How likely is such a measure of punishment? Fox TV channel asked this question to the former federal prosecutor Douglas Burns :

“I think he will receive the highest measure. In Massachusetts, as we know, the courts cannot say the perpetrators to the death penalty by law, but Tsarnaev’s case is not obeyed in the state court and in the federal court. Moreover, both lawyers and prosecutors were selected, only persons who swore that they were not ideological opponents of the death penalty. In other words, they are all theoretically. admit the legitimacy of the death penalty, not being its unconditional supporters in all cases related to intentional murder. "

Rebecca Gregory, who lost her leg due to wounds with the attack of 2013, returned to the Boston marathon in 2015 and finished:

What will be the position of protection? - the journalists asked Burns. Will lawyers focus on the fact that the trial takes place in Boston, where the crime occurred, which means that the jury cannot be objective? Or the defense will try to pay attention to the fact that Johar was hypnotized by the older brother who fell under the influence of radical Islam, and did not know what he was doing?

“ Judy Clark , a lawyer Tsarnaev, is a professional of the highest class,” Berns answered. “Let us recall: she saved the Theodore of Kazinsky from the death of the Theodore, who in the mid-90s, with the help of mined letters, killed three people and wounded more than twenty. And also Jared Lofner , who in 2011 killed six people in Arizona, including the districts The judge wounded the 13th others, including the member of the House of Representatives Gabriel Giffords. It doesn’t look like a person who is perfectly understanding and not repented by a lawyer.

The prosecution will complete the presentation of evidence by the end of the week. On Monday, April 27, the defense will begin to state their arguments.