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2nd LD Writethru: Boston marathon bomber Tsarnaev sentenced to death

Xinhua, May 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

A U.S. federal jury in Boston on Friday sentenced 21-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing attacks and the following killing of a police officer when on the run.

After deliberating more than 14 hours over three days, the federal jury unanimously chose death by lethal injection for Tsarnaev, a Kyrgyzstan-born U.S. citizen, over the only other option: life in prison without the possibility of release.

The same panel of seven women and five men convicted Tsarnaev last month of all 30 charges against him, including 17 counts that carried the death penalty.

Tsarnaev had no expression as a court clerk read the verdict sentencing him to death, local media The Boston Globe reported.

The sentence came down exactly 25 months after the April 15, 2013 bombings, one of the bloodiest attacks in America since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It marks the first time in the post 9/11 era that federal prosecutors have used the death penalty in a terrorism case.

After the verdict was announced, Sydney Corcoran, a survivor in the deadly bombing, tweeted "Justice. In his own words, "an eye for eye."

However, the family of the boy who was the youngest to die in the attack have asked federal prosecutors to scrap their efforts to impose the death penalty.

"We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives," said Bill and Denise Martin, parents of eight-year- old Martin Richard, in a statement titled "To end the anguish, drop the death penalty" carried by the Boston Global on Friday.

Analyst said that the appeal process could last a year, but Tsarnaev is very likely to be sentenced to death.

Tsarnaev was 19 when he carried out the twin deadly bombings with his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the crowded finishing line at the signature event of Boston Marathon. Three people were killed in the bombings and 264 more were severely injured. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in confrontation with the police. Endite