Quantcast
Channel: Tovia Smith
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 133

Tsarnaev Defense Urges Jury To Spare His Life

$
0
0
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: The attorneys defending Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had their first chance today to start laying out why they think he does not deserve the death penalty. Tsarnaev was convicted earlier this month on 30 federal charges. NPR's Tovia Smith was in the court and is with us now. And Tovia, what types of arguments are Tsarnaev's attorneys making?TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: Well, really, two different kinds - first, they're trying to show that Tsarnaev was the junior partner in crime in this case and that his now-deceased older brother, Tamerlan, was the leader. If not for him, they said, it never would have happened. People may not want to hear this, his attorney said, but Dzhokhar was a good kid. It's just that for a number of reasons, they said, he couldn't defy his older brother. The defense is also making a case more broadly against the death penalty, telling jurors they shouldn't even try to hurt Tsarnaev like he hurt

Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 133

Trending Articles