Jurors in the case against accused Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev heard final arguments from attorneys on Monday, and now must decide his fate.
Prosecutors said the Tsarnaev brothers “were the mujahedeen, and they were bringing their battle to Boston,” according to an account of the court proceedings in the New York Times. They said Dzhokhar wanted to “punish America for what it was doing to his people,” according to the Times.
Tsarnaev’s defense attorney, however, argued that he was an “adolescent” who just followed his older brother Tamerlan into carrying out the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Tamerlan was killed in the firefight in Watertown after being run over by Dzhokhar, according to the Boston Globe.
The jury of seven women and five men, all white, will consider 30 counts against Tsarnaev, one of which is if he used a weapon of mass destruction. Along with the three victims of the bombings – Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, and Lingzi Lu – he is also accused of killing MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. According to the Globe, 260 others were injured in the finish line bombings, including 17 who lost limbs.
Instead of trying to convince the jury that Tsarnaev did not carry out the bombings, his attorneys focused their effort on reducing the punishment against him.
After the verdict, jurors will move on to the sentencing phase of the trial.