BOSTON MARATHON bombing ‘It WAS him’: Defense admits Tsarnaev’s guilt

Associated Press

BOSTON

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 blunt opening statement at the nation’s biggest terrorism trial in nearly 20 years, Tsarnaev’s own lawyer flatly told a jury that the 21-year-old ex-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 malevolent influence of his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.

“The evidence will not establish and we will not argue that Tamerlan put a gun to Dzhokhar’s head or that he forced him to join in the plan,” Clarke said, “but you will hear evidence about the kind of influence that this older brother had.”

Three people were killed and more than 260 hurt when two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev, then 19, was accused of carrying out the attacks with 26-year-old Tamerlan, who was killed in a shoot- out and getaway attempt days later.

Authorities contend the brothers — Chechens who arrived from Russia more than a decade ago — were angered over U.S. wars in Muslim lands.