Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev sentenced to death

The jury in the case reached a decision on whether to hand down a life-or-death sentence to Tsarnaev for his role in the attack. The same jury convicted the 21-year-old last month of all 30 counts against him, 17 of which carry the death penalty.

A fitting punishment for this horrific crime. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch

The federal jury took 15 hours to decide on death by lethal injection for Tsarnaev over the only other option – life in prison without possibility of release.

Tsarnaev, dressed in a dark sport coat and light-coloured shirt, stood quietly in court as the sentence was read. The judge thanked him for his “composure and propriety”.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the jury’s decision was “a fitting punishment for this horrific crime.”

Boston Marathon deaths

Three people were killed and an estimated 264 were injured when two bombs went off near the finishing line of the Boston marathon on 15 April 2013.

Three days later, the FBI released photographs and CCTV footage of suspects, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two Chechen brothers. Tamerlan died during a shootout with police after the April attack.

Dzhokhar was found hiding in a boat the following day, after a massive manhunt.He was charged on 22 April with “using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death” and with “malicious destruction of property resulting in death”.

Who is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is half Chechen, was born in in Kyrgyzstan 22 July 1993. He and his family emigrated to Russia when he was a child, before moving to the United States under political asylum aged eight.

Before moving to the US, Tsarnaev attended a school in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucasus.

The area has become an epicentre of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from Chechnya.

As a high-school wrestler, Dzhokhar was named as student athlete of the month for February 2011. On the Russian-language social-networking site VK, Dzhokhar lists his “world view” as “Islam” and his personal priorities as “career and money”.

He posted links to Islamic websites, links to videos of fighters in the Syrian civil war, and links to pages advocating independence for Chechnya.

Tsarnaev became a US citizen on 11 September, 2012. In April 2013 – after the bombings – his mother Zubaedat Tsarnaeva spoke exclusively to Channel 4 News – where she defended her sons.