Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Begins

04 Mar, 2015

His life on the line, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went on trial Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing, with prosecutors saying he used a backpack to plant a bomb specifically designed to “tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle.”

“He believed that he was a soldier in a holy war against Americans,” Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said. “He also believed that by winning that victory, he had taken a step toward reaching paradise. That was his motive for committing these crimes.”

A shaggy-haired Tsarnaev, 21, slouched in his seat and looked at Weinreb as the prosecutor launched into his opening statement in the nation’s most closely watched terrorism trial since the Oklahoma City bombing more than 20 years ago.

Three people were killed and more than 260 hurt when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line seconds apart on April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev is accused of carrying out the attacks with his older brother, now dead.

About two dozen victims of the bombing took up the entire left-hand side the courtroom, watching somberly as Weinreb described the carnage. Several hung their heads and appeared to fight back tears.

Weinreb said Tsarnaev carried a bomb in a backpack, and it was “the type of bombs favored by terrorists because it’s designed to tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle.”

Sketching out the horrific scene on the streets after the two pressure-cooker bombs exploded, Weinreb said: “The air was filled with the smell of burning sulfur and people’s screams.”

Tsarnaev’s lawyers have made it clear they will try to show that at the time of the attack, Tsarnaev, then 19, looked up to his older brother, Tamerlan, 26, and was heavily influenced by him. They plan to portray Tamerlan as the mastermind of the attack. He died in a shootout with police days after the bombings.

But prosecutors say Dzhokhar was an equal participant who acted of his own free will. They contend the brothers – ethnic Chechens who arrived from Russia more than a decade ago – were driven by anger over U.S. wars in Muslim lands.

Tsarnaev faces 30 charges in the bombings and the shooting death days later of a police officer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Seventeen of the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.

AP

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