Boston bomber trial hears that attack was ‘cold, calculated terrorist act’
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 07 April, 2015, 9:49pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 08 April, 2015, 1:48am
Agence France-Presse in Boston
The jury must decide whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is guilty on 30 counts related to the April 15, 2013 attacks.
The fate of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was to be put in the hands of jurors overnight with the start of deliberations on the guilt of the 21-year-old American accused of carrying out the deadly 2013 attacks.
Three people were killed and 264 others wounded in the twin blasts at the city's marathon, the worst attack in the United States since September 11.
Government prosecutors portrayed the Muslim immigrant, who became a US citizen in 2012, as a callous terrorist who carried out the bombings to bring holy war to the northeastern US city and punish the United States.
Tsarnaev's lawyers admit that he planted one of the bombs, but have portrayed him as a feckless accomplice, bullied or manipulated into taking part by his more radical elder brother.
The jury must decide whether Tsarnaev is guilty on 30 counts related to the April 15, 2013 attacks, and the subsequent murder of a police officer, a car jacking and a shoot-out with police while on the run.
Seventeen of those charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.
The first stage of the one-month trial wrapped up Monday with closing statements from the government and the defence, and lengthy jury instructions from federal Judge George O'Toole.
If Tsarnaev is convicted, the trial will enter a second stage, when the jury determines whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life behind bars without parole - the only sentencing options available.
Prosecutors spent four weeks building their case, calling 92 witnesses in an effort to paint Tsarnaev as an active and willing bomber alongside his elder brother, who was killed by police while on the run.
"He wanted to terrorise this country. He wanted to punish America for what it was doing to his people," assistant US attorney Aloke Chakravarty told the court in his closing statement.
"That day they felt they were soldiers, that they were mujahideen and they were bringing their battle to Boston," added Chakravarty.
They portrayed a cold, callous killer - a marijuana-smoking, laidback student who had recently failed a number of exams and become an avid reader of Islamist literature.
They claimed he was self-radicalised as early as high school, plotted the attacks up to a year in advance and was influenced by the teachings of US-Yemen cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in 2011.
The prosecution showed the jury photographs and videos, filling the court with the screams of victims, the sight of blood, and the panic, fear and chaos after the bombings.
"This was a cold, calculated terrorist act. It was intentional. It was bloodthirsty," Chakravarty told the court.
He emphasised the appalling injuries that killed eight-year-old Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lu Lingzi, 23, and the murder of police officer Sean Collier, who was shot five times.
