After 11 hours of deliberations, a Massachusetts jury has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 of the 30 federal charges against him relating to the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon, including all 17 counts that carry the death penalty. The same jury will now decide whether Tsarnaev should be executed after hearing testimony in a new trial phase that is likely to begin next week.
Tsarnaev’s attorneys admitted immediately during the trial that he had helped carry out the marathon bombing, which killed three people. But the defense argued that Dzhokhar’s brother, Tamerlan (who was killed while attempting, along with Dzhokhar, to evade capture), was more responsible for planning and carrying out their crimes, which seem to have been motivated by Islamic jihadi ideology.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will also be prosecuted in state court for the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier three days after the bombing.
