Lawyers to delay Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev execution ‘by 18 years’
BOSTON Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could delay his execution for 18 years with a string of legal appeals, experts warned yesterday.
Tsarnaev, 21, was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 2013 Boston Marathon terror attack
The baby-faced 21-year-old student will this week become the 62nd inmate on federal Death Row when he is transferred to the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
A jury decided on Friday he will face execution by lethal injection for his part in detonating two bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260 others, and for shooting dead a police officer.
His brother Tamerlan was also involved in the attacks but died following a shoot-out.
The verdict was welcomed by survivors and relatives of victims of the terrorist attack.
Firefighter Michael Ward, who helped pull more than a dozen people from the carnage, said: “Ultimately justice has prevailed.
"He wanted to go to hell and he’s going to get there early.”
Boston marathon explosion at finish line
This guy may be the youngest inmate on death row at 21 but he could be pushing 40 by the time they march him to the death chamber
Defence attorney Judy Clarke has indicated she will pursue two “strong lines” of appeal; that it was prejudicial to her client to hold the trial in Boston and that her team was given “insufficient time” to prepare their arguments against the death penalty.
Legal expert Jim Fedalen said: “This guy may be the youngest inmate on death row at 21 but he could be pushing 40 by the time they march him to the death chamber.
“We are looking at 18 years, possibly longer, before his appeals process is exhausted.
"By then, who even knows what the legal landscape on federal executions will look like?”
Although 340 prisoners have been executed by the US government since 1790, only three have been put to death at the Terre Haute penitentiary in the past 50 years.
They were Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, drug baron and triple killer Juan Raul Garza in 2001 and murderer and rapist Louis Jones two years later.