Defense admits Tsarnaev carried out Boston Marathon bombing
By The Associated Press
The question, for all practical purposes, is no longer whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev took part in the Boston Marathon bombing. It’s whether he deserves to die for it.
In a startling opening statement at the nation’s biggest terrorism trial in nearly 20 years, Tsarnaev’s own lawyer told a jury that the 21-year-old former college student committed the crime.
“It WAS him,” said defense attorney Judy Clarke, one of the nation’s foremost death-penalty specialists.
But in a strategy aimed at saving Tsarnaev from a death sentence, she argued that he had fallen under the influence of his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.
(C) The Associated Press 2015
