Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is on trial for his life, and his legal team began his defense Wednesday with an admission of guilt in the Boston Marathon bombing.
"It was him," attorney Judy Clarke said of her client during opening statements in Boston, where Tsarnaev's trial began after weeks of jury selection.
Clarke admits the bombings were carried out by the #Tsarnaev brothers. Wow. She is rehashing some of what prosecutors said.
— Bob McGovern (@BobMcGovernJr) March 4, 2015MORE: Images from marathon bombing | One runner's experience | Bombing timeline
The strategy established on Day 1 by Tsarnaev's defense team, then, is that Dzhokhar was swept up in his older brother's actions throughout the bombing and its aftermath, which resulted in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's death in a shootout with police.
"It was Tamerlan who self-radicalized," Clarke said. "It was Dzhokhar who followed."
The younger Tsarnaev, 21, faces 30 counts related to the terror that swept Boston over four days in April 2013 and resulted in the deaths of four people — Lingzi Lu, Krystle Campbell and 8-year-old Martin Richard in the bombing and MIT police officer Sean Collier in a shooting three days later. An additional 260 people were injured in the Patriots' Day attack.
MORE: Suspect images | Backgrounds | Tsarnaev's note: U.S. must be punished
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb earlier opened the proceedings by describing in extreme detail the injuries of the dead and wounded near the marathon finish line.
"He decided to place his bomb right behind a row of children ... one of them was Martin Richard." #Tsarnaev
— Bob McGovern (@BobMcGovernJr) March 4, 2015With the basic facts of what happened on Boylston Street apparently not in dispute, Tsarnaev's defense appears focused on avoiding the death penalty. If the jury finds Tsarnaev guilty, it will have only two sentencing options — death or life in prison.
The last execution in Massachusetts took place in 1947 and the state eliminated the death penalty more than 30 years ago, but Tsarnaev would be subject to a death sentence because he is being tried in a federal case. Only three federal prisoners have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976; one of them was Oklahoma City bomber Timonthy McVeigh.
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