Boston Bomber deserves capital punishment
The Editorial Board
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be found guilty of all his crimes associated with the terror attacks at the Boston Marathon. If he is not sentenced to death, the high-profile trial will be a loss for the American people. The trial already is swirling in the media, forcing victims to again face the evil act of war that strained the psyche of all involved.
Based on the 74-page indictment, the prosecution built a solid case against Tsarnaev, and has leverage against him. The prosecutors didn’t have much ground to cover, being so that the plot unraveled quickly, mostly in the eyes of the public through live news coverage of his capture. But there is still a chance Tsarnaev could simply be jailed for life, avoiding capital punishment.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was one of two suspects arrested for the bombing.
His defense attorney is Judy Clarke, an ace lawyer who worked for the likes of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski and Jared Loughner, the man who shot ex-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head. Clarke avoided the death penalty for her clients, instead bargaining a life prison sentence without a chance for parole.
This case is different than the aforementioned because the Boston Marathon bombing was, and still is, the largest terror attack on the United States since 9/11. This trial will set a precedent on post-9/11 homegrown terrorism, an unnerving trend that is only gaining popularity with the surge of global terror organizations. To execute Tsarnaev is to acknowledge domestic terrorism, surely putting in perspective that terrorists aren’t confined to other countries.
Advocating Tsarnaev’s execution has logic that lies in the fibers of his conspiracy. Here, for the sake of brevity, the scope shall focus on the literature Tsarnaev and his deceased brother, Tamerlan, referred to in the months leading up to the attack.
According to the indictment, he downloaded an edition of “Inspire,” an anti-American magazine catered to Jihadists. “Inspire” ran a how-to article on improvised explosive device building. This is why Tsarnaev and his brother used the pressure cooker bombs. Further inspiration from the magazine was not specified in the indictment, although by reading an edition, you will infer that Tsarnaev was of the anti-American, pro-Jihad thinking — terrorism, but this time brewing in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Other readings included a long-titled book written by Anwar Al-Awlaki, a ringleader of sorts in regards to global Jihadists. Al-Awlaki was the first person to be targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike. It appears Tsarnaev also read from the likes of Abdullah Azzam, known as the “father of global terrorism,” according to the indictment.
The philosophy gathered from those readings gleamed in Tsarnaev’s writing in a message he wrote just before being captured in a dry-docked boat. “I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished,” also writing “…know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven…”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is an opponent of the death penalty, but even he has suggested Tsarnaev receive such a sentence. He does not deserve life, for he ended life. Outside that premise, the judicial system needs to reinforce that all terrorism, foreign and domestic, will not be tolerated. Sentence Tsarnaev to death, or the American principles — the principles he and his brother conspired against — will be contested and defeated.
Featured Image: Boston Marathon runners and their supporters scramble around after a IED explodes near the finish line in April 2013. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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