Supreme Court Justices hear arguments to reinstate death penalty for Boston Marathon Bomber

Credit: Royalty image provided by Miguel A. Amutio, @amutiomi.

Contention has surrounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ever since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit vacated his death sentences last year.  

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether or not the death penalty should be reinstated for 28-year-old Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. 

Arguments focused on whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit erred in vacating Tsarnaev’s capital punishment and whether or not the district court committed reversible error at the penalty phase of Tsarnaev’s trial. 

Following the deadly bombing on April 15, 2013, then 19-year-old Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death in 2015. He was found guilty on all 30 counts, including six death sentences and 11 life sentences, regarding his role in the marathon bombings that killed three people and injured hundreds. 

On the day of the 2013 Boston marathon, Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan placed two homemade pressure cooker bombs, 210 yards apart, near the finish line. The bombs detonated at 2:49pm, killing three people including an 8-year-old boy and injuring 264 others, 17 of whom lost limbs. 

The Court of Appeals in the 1st Circuit overturned Tsnarnaev’s death penalty last year on the grounds that the district court did not ask prospective jurors for specific accounting of their pre-trial media exposure. 

The U.S. Department of Justice then filed a petition in October of 2020 seeking the Supreme Court's review of the ruling. The Court agreed in March to hear the government's appeal.  

The impact of Tsarnaev’s older brother 

Arguments focused on Tsarnaev’s late brother Tamerlan and the evidence that was omitted from Tsarnaev’s trial in the federal district court of Massachusetts. 

Tsarnaev’s Attorney Ginger Anders argued that the district court violated the Eighth Amendment, which states that no cruel or unusual punishment should be inflicted, by excluding evidence from the 2011 Waltham, Mass. murders, where Tamerlan was the primary suspect. Anders believes this evidence represents the influence Tamerlan had on Tsarnaev and had it been presented, it could have reduced his punishment. 

“More evidence should come in at the capital punishment phase, not less,” Anders said. 

U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Eric Feigin argued the opposite. He said he thinks that introducing that evidence in the trial would have been inappropriate and invited a “comparison game.”

“The jury was supposed to be focused on respondent not on something Tamerlan had done two years earlier that was a quite different crime,” Feigin said. 

Mixed feelings from first responders, victims, families

Some of those directly impacted by the 2013 marathon bombing are split on reinstating Tsarnaev’s death sentence. 

Prior to the hearing, medical personnel from Boston Children’s Hospital who were 15 yards away from the bomb, offered their thoughts.  

Dr. Lyle Micheli, orthopedic surgeon said that if the law determines Tsarnaev’s capital punishment should be reinstated then he would agree but he doesn’t have a firm stance just yet. 

Brian Fitzgerald, program and community partnership manager and athletic trainer for the Sports Medicine Division, said he originally wasn’t a big fan of the death penalty, but his trauamtic experience that day changed his mind. 

“Stepping into that area, it was like stepping into another world or hell basically,” Fitzgerald said. “The smoke, the smell of blood.” 

He said he thinks Tsarnaev does deserve the death penalty. 

After the hearing, Elizabeth “Liz” Norden, whose two sons lost both of their legs as a result of the bombing, said she is very much for the reinstatement of Tsarnaev’s death penalty. 

She said she doesn’t feel that he was influenced by his brother at all. 

“He looked around, saw very young children and people of all different ages and he stood there and he walked away and he put it off,” Norden said. “I don’t think he was influenced by anybody to be quite honest with you.” 

Norden said that she carries the day of the bombing with her constantly, everyday when she watches her sons put their legs on and for her, she doesn’t feel Tsarnaev sitting in prison is a fair punishment. 

“As a parent for my two sons, that’s what I feel,” Norden said. 

The justices weighed both sides of the arguments for reinstatement of capital punishment Tsarnaev but their opinion will not be released until spring of 2022.