WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The Supreme Court sounded ready Wednesday to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
In more than 90 minutes of arguments, the court’s six conservative justices seemed likely to embrace the Biden administration’s argument that a federal appeals court mistakenly threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence for his role in the bombing that killed three people near the finish line of the marathon in 2013.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled last year that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev was deeply influenced by his older brother, Tamerlan, and was somehow less responsible for the carnage. The appeals court also faulted the judge for not sufficiently questioning jurors about their exposure to extensive news coverage of the bombing.
If the appellate ruling were affirmed, Tsarnaev would have to face a new sentencing trial if the administration decided to continue pressing for a death sentence.
“He showed no mercy the day he did what he did and I don’t think we should show him any mercy,” Boston bombing survivor Marc Fucarile said on NewsNation Prime.
Marc was at the finish line when one of the bombs went off. He lost one leg and almost lost the other.
“I think we need to send a message,” Fucarile said during a earlier appearance on “Morning in America“. “If this act is something you do, this is your consequence.”
“Many family members of the survivors I have spoken with are for the death penalty,” Fucarile said.
Fucarile speaks passionately about the very personal issue and is not happy the U.S. “is not holding criminals responsible.”
“If this doesn’t call for the death penalty? What would call for the death penalty?” he says of the actions that took three lives and left “265 injured, 17 amputees mutilated.”
“What kind of message are we sending,” he questions.
If the high court upholds the ruling for life in prison, “I’d like to see us go back after it and retry it. I mean, 100%,” Fucarile said.
The Biden administration has aggressively pursued a capital sentence for Tsarnaev even as it has halted federal executions and Biden has called for an end to the federal death penalty.
Tsarnaev’s guilt in the deaths of three people in the bombing is not at issue in the case the justices will hear — just whether he should be sentenced to life in prison, or death.
