Handing 21-year-old Dozhokhar Tsarnaev the death penalty, the lone surviving terrorist of the April 15, 2013 pressure cooker bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring 260, got his wish. Opting for the death penalty on 17-of-30 counts, the 12-member federal jury rendered the death sentence, against prevailing expectations in an otherwise progressive city. Represented by well-known death penalty opponent Judy Clarke, the jury didn’t buy her arguments that the teenager was unduly influenced by his 27-year-old radical brother Tamerlan, who died in a firefight with Watertown police April 19, 2013. Parading family friends and witnesses wasn’t enough distraction for the 12-member panel weighing death against life imprisonment. Opting for death the jury made an unequivocal statement about what will happen to future terrorists taking the battle to American streets.
While not one of the counts dealt with the special circumstance of homegrown terrorism, the jury got the big picture that no terrorist—whatever the cause—can murder without the ultimate penalty. Years of federal appeals no doubt lie ahead for Tsarnaev but the message sent to future terrorists is unequivocal: Murder American citizens and you will die in the hands of the world’s most compassionate criminal justice system. Lead federal prosecutor William Weintreb argued that Dzhokhar showed no remorse for killing women and children in the blast, including murdering 27-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police officer Sean Collier. “Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop,” Weinreb showed the jury Dzhokhar’s own words scrawled into a boat where he hid in Watertown. Prosecutors and defense made all the persuasive arguments but the jury got it.
Despite pleas from famous death penalty opponent, Roman Catholic nun Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking,” the jury looked beyond the rhetoric to what’s really at stake. “This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev—unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged,” said prosecutor Nadine Pelligrin, showing jurors a picture of Dzhokhar flipping off a security camera in his jail cell. But like the pleas for death penalty opponents appealing for compassion or from federal prosecutors pushing for no mercy, the jury understood the consequences of sending the Chechen-born terrorist to prison. Had the jury given Dzhokhar life-in-prison, it would have sent a deadly message to future terrorist considering attacks on American soil. “No one deserves to suffer like they did,” Dzhokhar reportedly told Prejean, pleading with jurors to spar his life because he showed some measure of contrition.
Death penalty opponents aren’t concerned about encouraging terrorism on U.S. streets: Only about ending what they see as a barbaric practice. Dzhokhar’s team argued that he was an impressionable youth, going along with his older brother Tamerlan’s radicalization, when he traveled to Chechnya and Dagestan in 2012, returning to Cambridge to make his statement. Local and federal law enforcement couldn’t prove that the Tsarnaev brother received help making the pressure cooker bombs with their sophisticated remote control devices. Federal authorities are still concerned that Boston could harbor clandestine Islamic sleeper cells ready to strike U.S. citizens when given the orders. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria spokesmen often allude how they intend to take the fight to the United States, warning Americans that they’re vulnerable anywhere on American streets.
Boston’s 12-member jury got it right that there was no more appropriate punishment for Dzhokhar than the death penalty. Congress should debate and pass mandatory death penalty laws for homegrown or foreign terrorist committing murder on American soil or its diplomatic or military installations. Sending Tsarnaev to his death sends the right message to terrorists considering attacking the U.S. at home or abroad. Sending Dzhokhar to a federal Supermax prison in Colorado to serve out a life sentence would send the wrong message to would be terrorists. Whether or not Dzhokhar showed contrition or compassion for victims should have nothing to do with the penalty for engaging in terrorism on American soil. Congress should make terrorism a “special circumstance” carrying an automatic death penalty in the federal courts system, regardless of criminals’ statements.
Boston Marathon federal jury got it right sending Dzhokar Tsarnaev to his grave for the April 15 terrorist attack. Death penalty advocates and opponents need to appreciate differences when terrorism strikes on American soil. Killing 32-year-old Chinese foreign grad student Lingzi Lu, 29-year-old Medford restaurant manager Khrystle Campbell, 8-year-old Dorchester resident Martin Richard and 27-year-old MIT police officer Sean Collier, Dzhokar got the correct sentence. If the federal death penalty didn’t exist, it would send the exact wrong message to terrorists considering attacks on U.S. soil. When it comes to terrorism, there are no mitigating circumstances when it comes to the death penalty. Federal prosecutors should not have to prove extreme cruelty, child killing, the carnage or lack of remorse. Congress needs to set a mandatory death penalty for all terrorists.
