
Bloomberg – Cornered and bleeding from a gunshot wound, Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev revealed his true self when he scrawled what he thought were his dying words as he lay hidden inside a boat, a prosecutor said.
“Americans need to be punished,” the Boston Marathon bomber wrote as police converged on him.
The words came in a moment of clarity, Assistant US Attorney Steven Mellin told jurors Wednesday in Boston federal court. They show the 21-year-old’s true nature, he said – they show he should be executed.
Mellin urged the panel, which will decide whether Tsarnaev should die for killing three and injuring hundreds in the April 2013 attack, to choose death.
“There is no just punishment other than death,” Mellin said, choking up as he recalled testimony of victims and families during Tsarnaev’s trial. “Their pain will never go away.”
Last month, the jury found the former college student guilty of the bombing after he admitted his involvement. With the verdict never really in doubt, defense lawyers have urged jurors to impose a life sentence. They argued their client was under the sway of his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a manhunt after the bombing.
In his note, the younger Tsarnaev said killing civilians is wrong, but that it was justified in this case, Mellin said.
“No remorse. No apology,” said the prosecutor.
“Those are the words of a terrorist convinced he has done the right thing. He felt justified in killing and maiming innocent men, women and children.”
Mellin dismissed the defense claim that Tamerlan controlled his younger brother’s actions.
“Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not the defendant’s master. They were partners in crime, brothers in arms,” Mellin said. “Both decided they wanted to punish America in way that would win them glory and a place in paradise.”