Unsurprisingly, victims of Boston Marathon bomber differ on seeking a new death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after reversal on appeal
Later this month, I will have the pleased of starting a new semester teaching my sentencing law and policy class. I often ask my students about on-going real cases, and this year I will press student to consider whether they would want the US Attorney for Massachusetts to pursue capital resentencing in the Boston Marathon bombing case, United States v. Tsarnaev, following the First Circuit’s recent death sentence reversal. Helpfully, the Boston Globe has these two new pieces focused on this topic:
Here are excerpts from the first piece linked above:
The overturning of Tsarnaev’s death sentence has sent tremors of anxiety across the community of survivors and relatives of those killed in the attack, many of whom are still recovering from their physical and emotional wounds…. In a statement, Andrew Lelling, US attorney for Massachusetts, promised to consider the views of survivors and victims’ families before deciding whether to seek a new trial….
“Let him serve his life in prison, and let us live our lives in peace,” said Lynn Julian Crisci, who suffered a brain injury, hearing loss, and neurological disorders as a result of the first bomb. Crisci, 43, used to support the death penalty, until having to live through what feels like an endless appeals process. Now she hopes prosecutors will not seek another penalty trial….
Of 18 victims who responded to the Globe about what prosecutors should do, a majority said they would prefer to avoid another trial and to let Tsarnaev spend the rest of his days at the US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Colorado, the nation’s highest-security prison.
“I would prefer to let it go and let him rot in jail,” said Beth Bourgault, 65, who lives in Lynn. Bourgault and her husband were standing a few feet from Krystle Campbell when the first of two bombs exploded on Boylston Street. Shrapnel severed muscles and nerves in one of her legs. She also suffered a ruptured eardrum. Her husband, Michael, suffered burns and ear injuries as well. She was troubled when Tsarnaev was originally sentenced to death and hopes prosecutors do not pursue a second trial. “My feeling is he was hoping for death and that he got what he wanted,” she said. “I’d prefer he spend his days thinking about what he did.”
Other victims, though, were enraged by the court’s ruling and were willing to endure another trial to see Tsarnaev sentenced to death. “If they don’t go through with the death penalty in this case, what kind of precedent is there? What’s the point of the death penalty?” said Liz Norden, whose two adult sons lost their right legs in the bombing. “This is personal to me.” Norden, 57, who lives in Melrose, vowed to attend a new trial. “I want to see it through the end,” she said. “I want justice.”…
On Thursday, the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts, which prosecuted Tsarnaev in 2015, held a conference call with victims to discuss the appeals court decision and how they wished to proceed. Discerning a consensus might be difficult.
Helen Zhao, who lost her niece Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China, to the second bomb, supports the death penalty for Tsarnaev. “He has harmed a lot of people and changed a lot of people’s lives,” she said. “He’s a terrorist.” Lu’s parents, who live in China, were “shocked” and “speechless” by the ruling, she said. “They were disappointed in the American legal system,” said Zhao, 49, who lives in Rhode Island.
Marc Fucarile, who lost his right leg in the bombing, worried that a life sentence could mean that Tsarnaev might one day be able to regain his freedom. “As long as he’s breathing, that’s a possibility,” he said. “They’re giving [Tsarnaev] a victory.” Fucarile, 41, who lives in Reading, testified during the penalty phase at Tsarnaev’s trial and said he would attend a new trial. “I want to see it happen,” he said.
But Jenny Chung Greenfield, who was hit by shrapnel in her chest from one of the bombs, prefers that prosecutors put an end to what could be decades worth of appeals, keeping Tsarnaev’s name in the public eye. She didn’t attend the first trial and doubts she’d go to a new one. “I just think about what does closure mean, and closure is such a personal thing to people, and the way that folks find closure is different,” said Chung Greenfield, 42, who lives in Cambridge.