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Now the Boston Bombing Trial Really Begins
Susan ZalkindHow much did Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s trip to Dagestan influence him? How much did the FBI know? We could find out more in sentencing.
Lawyers in the trial against Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev presented their closing arguments in Boston’s Federal Court on Monday afternoon. It was an emotional event in the large-scale legal battle surrounding this case.
In most criminal cases, closing arguments mark the end of the trial, a grand finale. Not so with a capital case where the defendant’s attorneys have already admitted it: “It was him.”
Because of that, the guilt phase has been more of a preview of what’s to come in the sentencing phases—the life-and-death fight over the 21-year-old’s life.
Nonetheless, since Tsarnaev still technically pleaded not guilty, the government has had to painstakingly argue its points. All 30 of them. Bullethole by bullethole. Seventeen of these charges carry the death penalty. The jury will almost certainly find him guilty of most—more likely all—of those counts.
How long it will take them to get to that point is unclear.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/07/now-the-boston-bombing-trial-really-begins.html