By Vestnik Kavkaza
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been pronounced guilty on all the charges brought against him by the prosecution. Starting from April 21 the 12 jurors in the federal court will be deciding whether Tsarnaev will be subject to the death penalty or life in prison. US public opinion on the issue varies.
US newspaper the Boston Globe published an article entitled "Many debate death penalty for Tsarnaev." "The case has turned residents into spectators of one of the most profound uses of government power. It has triggered soul-searching about what is the appropriate punishment for someone who showed such callousness toward human life — and has yet to exhibit remorse or emotion in the courtroom — yet before his arrest, was only 19, had no criminal record, and came from a fractured, troubled family," the article reads. The state of Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, but since it is a federal case the death penalty is one of the options. "It pits the state’s historical resistance to the death penalty against an extremely heinous crime that is “seared into people’s minds," the article reports.
"Why Tsarnaev deserves the mercy of a life sentence," influential religious American publication Christian Science Monitor believes. "A degree of mercy might open the possibility over time that Tsarnaev will renounce his crime and plea for others not to kill in the name of misguided jihad, as he did," the article reads.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board published an article entitled "Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shouldn't get death penalty." "But although those things may all be true, the real reason to spare Tsarnaev's life is that no crime warrants the death penalty. The jury should reject capital punishment and sentence Tsarnaev to life in prison without possibility of parole because that is how a mature society acts. Not out of vengeance. Not out of passion. Killing another human being is immoral, whether by bomb or by lethal injection," the article reads.
