BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS--Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a federal jury that now must decide whether the 21-year-old former college student should be executed.
Jurors spent just over 11 hours evaluating Tsarnaev's guilt in two days of deliberations, following 16 days of testimony, in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that three people were killed and 264 injured.
He was found guilty on charges that included conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction - all offenses punishable by death.
The defendant looked pale as he entered court to hear the verdict dressed in a blue sweater and dark blazer. His lawyer Judy Clarke gave him a brief pat on the back as he sat down. Tsarnaev kept his hands folded in front of him and looked down at the defense table as the guilty verdicts were read.
During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence they hope will save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia.
Tsarnaev's conviction was practically a foregone conclusion: Tsarnaev's lawyers admitted he participated in the bombings, but said his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan, 26, was the driving force behind the 2013 deadly attack.
30 charges
The jury was asked to decide 30 charges against Tsarnaev, including using a weapon of mass destruction and charges of killing a police officer three days later and hurling pipe bombs during a shootout with authorities in a residential neighborhood.
Earlier Wednesday, the jury asked the judge to clarify two legal terms before they began a second day of deliberations.
The jury had two questions about the law for U.S. District Judge George O'Toole.
They asked about the term "conspiracy," which appears in several of the charges. O’Toole explained it applied to a plot between Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev that existed from February through April 19 of 2013, when the younger brother was caught.
Jurors also asked if "aiding and abetting," which also appears in several charges, are separate ideas. The judge said the terms represent a single concept.
Prosecutors laid out evidence that the defendant, an ethnic Chechen who emigrated from Russia a decade before the attack, had read and listened to jihadist materials, and wrote a note in the boat where he was found hiding suggesting the bombing was an act of retribution for U.S. military campaigns in Muslim-dominated countries.
Read more: Tsarnaev Found Guilty in Boston Bombing Trial
Jurors spent just over 11 hours evaluating Tsarnaev's guilt in two days of deliberations, following 16 days of testimony, in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that three people were killed and 264 injured.
He was found guilty on charges that included conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction - all offenses punishable by death.
The defendant looked pale as he entered court to hear the verdict dressed in a blue sweater and dark blazer. His lawyer Judy Clarke gave him a brief pat on the back as he sat down. Tsarnaev kept his hands folded in front of him and looked down at the defense table as the guilty verdicts were read.
During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence they hope will save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia.
Tsarnaev's conviction was practically a foregone conclusion: Tsarnaev's lawyers admitted he participated in the bombings, but said his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan, 26, was the driving force behind the 2013 deadly attack.
30 charges
The jury was asked to decide 30 charges against Tsarnaev, including using a weapon of mass destruction and charges of killing a police officer three days later and hurling pipe bombs during a shootout with authorities in a residential neighborhood.
Earlier Wednesday, the jury asked the judge to clarify two legal terms before they began a second day of deliberations.
The jury had two questions about the law for U.S. District Judge George O'Toole.
They asked about the term "conspiracy," which appears in several of the charges. O’Toole explained it applied to a plot between Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev that existed from February through April 19 of 2013, when the younger brother was caught.
Jurors also asked if "aiding and abetting," which also appears in several charges, are separate ideas. The judge said the terms represent a single concept.
Prosecutors laid out evidence that the defendant, an ethnic Chechen who emigrated from Russia a decade before the attack, had read and listened to jihadist materials, and wrote a note in the boat where he was found hiding suggesting the bombing was an act of retribution for U.S. military campaigns in Muslim-dominated countries.
Read more: Tsarnaev Found Guilty in Boston Bombing Trial