“I am sorry for the lives that I’ve taken, for the suffering that I’ve caused you, for the damage that I’ve done — irreparable damage,” Mr. Tsarnaev, 21, who is originally from Kyrgyzstan, mumbled softly in heavily accented English.
“I’m guilty of it. If there is any lingering doubt of that, let it be no more,” he said.
The four-minute speech, laced throughout with references to Allah as those in the courtroom strained to make out his words, came during a day filled with drama, beginning with heart-wrenching victim impact statements and concluding with the judge formally confirming a jury’s death sentence against Mr. Tsarnaev with words from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”:
Three victims — Henry Borgard, left, Lynn Julian and Scott Weisberg — had mixed reactions to Mr. Tsarnaev’s apology.Tweets From the Courtroom: Boston Marathon Bombing Victims and Families Address TsarnaevJUNE 24, 2015
From left, Judy Clarke, Miriam Conrad and David Bruck, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers, arrived for closing arguments in his trial Monday in Boston.Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Wraps Up With Clashing Portraits of Naïveté and ExtremismAPRIL 6, 2015
Flowers, champagne and a message to Krystle Campbell, who was killed in the Boston Marathon bombing, adorned the finish line Saturday, a day after jurors sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.Death Sentence for Boston Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Unsettles City He Tore ApartMAY 16, 2015
Surviving the Finish LineAPRIL 13, 2014
“The evil that men do lives after them,” the judge said. “The good is oft interred with their bones. So it will be for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.”
Document: Excerpts From Official Sentencing of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
The path to Wednesday’s scene began on April 15, 2013, when two pressure-cooker bombs, planted by Mr. Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, tore through the marathon. Three people were killed that day, 17 lost limbs and 250 more were otherwise injured, many of them grievously.
A fourth person, a law enforcement officer, was killed a few days later. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with the police. Before he was captured hiding in a boat, Mr. Tsarnaev wrote that the bombings were revenge for all the innocent Muslims killed in American-led wars.
Mr. Tsarnaev, wearing a dark suit, his hair and beard longer and more unruly than during his trial, frequently referred to his religion during his brief comments.
“I prayed for Allah to bestow his mercy upon the deceased, those affected in the bombing and their families,” he said. “Allah says in the Quran that with every hardship, there is relief. I pray for your relief, for your healing, for your well-being, for your strength.”
But even as Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. of Federal District Court formally sentenced Mr. Tsarnaev on Wednesday to six death sentences, 20 sentences of life in prison and four more sentences of seven to 25 years, very little was actually over. Appeals by Mr. Tsarnaev’s lawyers could take years, if not decades, to wend their way through the courts.
Two dozen people who were directly affected by the bombing gave statements Wednesday. Many were angry. Some called Mr. Tsarnaev a coward and a failure. A few said they forgave him. And many said they still could not fathom the depth of cruelty that led him to destroy innocent lives.
Vincent B. Lisi, head of the F.B.I.’s Boston office, with Carmen M. Ortiz, left, the United States attorney for Massachusetts. Credit Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
“She was not the enemy,” Karen McWatters, who lost a leg, said of her friend Krystle Campbell, who was killed in the blast. “They didn’t even know her.”
Jennifer Rogers, the sister of Sean Collier, the M.I.T. police officer who was killed by the Tsarnaev brothers a few days after the bombing, called Mr. Tsarnaev a leech, a coward and a liar who felt no remorse, she said, and who “spit in the face of the American dream.”
He not only took her brother’s life, Ms. Rogers said, but in a sense took hers, too. She said that strangers invaded her privacy all the time, asking her how it felt to have a brother who was murdered, and that it was hard to explain what it was like to be “part of a big, publicized tragedy.”
She indicated that her sense of loss had been debilitating. “I rarely date anymore,” she said. “I don’t really know what makes me happy anymore.”
Bill Richard, the father of 8-year-old Martin, who was also killed in the blast, spoke with his wife, Denise, by his side. The Richard family had wanted the jury to sentence Mr. Tsarnaev to life in prison. On Wednesday, they spoke publicly for the first time since the jury chose the death sentence. They said Mr. Tsarnaev could have stopped his brother but made a deliberate choice not to.
“He chose hate, he chose destruction, he chose death; this is all on him,” Mr. Richard said. “We choose love, we choose kindness, we choose peace. This is our response to hate. That is what makes us different than him.”
Document: Comments by Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. Before Sentencing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Among those who addressed the court were several who call themselves “the invisible victims.” Generally, they did not sustain overt injuries, their stories never made headlines and they did not testify at the trial.
But many have some permanent hearing loss, have post-traumatic stress disorder, have lost their trust in people and are awakened by nightmares. Their relationships have suffered, too, as spouses and friends who cannot see anything physically wrong with them cannot understand why they are so upset.
Carol Downing wept as she said that her two daughters were waiting for her as she ran the marathon that day; one lost a leg and has had 21 operations, and the other was severely injured. “I sob at the dinner table” from physical and mental exhaustion, Mrs. Downing said, adding that she was racked with guilt “from placing my children at the finish line while I ran the marathon.”
Scott Weisberg, 45, a family physician from Birmingham, Ala., also ran the race, crossing the finish line three seconds before the first explosion. He said he had a mild traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss, which means he can no longer use a stethoscope.
“Now my practice is struggling to survive,” he said. “I’m getting a divorce because my spouse cannot grasp the trauma this has inflicted on me and my family.”
After the lunch break, Mr. Tsarnaev addressed the court, to the surprise of many, as he had not said a word in public since he said “not guilty” almost two years ago.
Protesters against the death penalty stood outside the federal courthouse in Boston where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced Wednesday. Credit Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
While apologizing, he spoke elliptically of the victims.
“I learned their names, their faces, their age,” he said. “And throughout this trial, more of those victims were given names, more of those victims had faces, and they had burdened souls.”
Those who heard Mr. Tsarnaev’s remarks seemed divided about them. The United States attorney for Massachusetts, Carmen M. Ortiz, noted that Mr. Tsarnaev did not denounce terrorism.
Lynn Julian, a Boston resident who was near the site of the first explosion and sustained traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments, doubted Mr. Tsarnaev’s sincerity.
“I regret having ever wanted to hear him speak, because what he said showed no remorse, no regret, no empathy for what he’s done to our lives,” Ms. Julian said.
But Henry Borgard, 24, who said in a victim impact statement that the post-traumatic stress he incurred had forced him to drop out of college and that he had forgiven Mr. Tsarnaev, said after the hearing that he was heartened by his statement.
“For me to hear him say he’s sorry,” Mr. Borgard said, “that is enough for me.”
Judge O’Toole was unmoved. After Mr. Tsarnaev spoke, the judge told him, “Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you have done.”
He concluded by quoting Verdi’s opera “Otello,” in which the evil Iago sings, “I believe in a cruel God.”
“Surely someone who believes that God smiles on and rewards the deliberate killing and maiming of innocents believes in a cruel god,” Judge O’Toole said. “That is not, it cannot be, the God of Islam.”
nytimes.
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