The Boston bombing is the most recent terror attack on U.S. soil since the

massacre at Fort Hood in 2009. The attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon killed three people

and wounded 264 others. The culprits of the attack were determined to be brothers

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The trial for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev began on March 4,

2015.

Of the fatalities, one person stood out in this trial, Martin Richard. At the time of

the bombing, Martin was only eight years old and was a spectator with his family. His

father gave a moving testimony on the second day of the trial. Many victims and their

families were called to testify but Bill Richard, Martin’s father, brought the jury to tears: “I

saw a little boy who had his body severely damaged by an explosion, I just knew from

what I saw that there was no chance.”

The defense is not denying that their client and his brother were responsible for

the attack. According to CNN, they are trying to dismiss the possibility of the death

penalty for Tsarnaev. In fact the Tsarnaev’s defense attorney, Judy Clarke, stated at the

beginning of the trial that, “It was him” (referring to her client). Clarke believes that her

client will not “sidestep” his actions. The main focus of the arguments surrounding this

trial is why the defendant committed the crime. Apparently Dzhokhar’s older brother

coerced him into the plan. Unfortunately his brother, Tamerlan, was killed in a shoot out

with the police before he could be prosecuted.

The goal of the Tsarnaev brothers was to murder as many people as possible.

Their method of achieving such a goal was to set up pressure cooker bombs around the

race course of the Boston marathon, with one at the finish line.

In the days immediately following, Tsarnaev went about his life as

though he had not just hurt over 250 people. He went to Whole Foods and bought milk

and then hung out with his friends. It is believed he does not feel remorse for his actions. The

prosecutor told the jury that Tsarnaev thinks he did something good.

The prosecution has painted the culprit as a “holy warrior”. The proof of this

accusation was on the boat that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding out on. The side of the

boat was covered in his ramblings of how the US was an enemy of Islam. Some of theses

ramblings included statement such as:

“The U.S. government is killing our innocent civilians,I can’t stand to see such evil go

unpunished.”

“We Muslims are one body. You hurt one, you hurt us all.”

“Now I don’t like killing innocent people. It is forbidden in Islam but due to said

(unintelligible) it is allowed.”

“Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop.”

Besides these writings, the prosecution uncovered two twitter accounts

registered in the name of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The posts leading up to the attacks hinted

at his religious views. One such post referred to the responsibility of muslims, “It’s our

responsibility brothers & sisters to ask Allah to ease the hardships of the oppressed and

give us victory over kufr.” Over these messages the defense pulled for their first

advancement in the case. They stated that the prosecution misinterpreted the meaning

of many of Tsarnaev’s posts.

With many compelling testimonies the trial is proving to be a long one. It is expected to last several months before the jury can come up with a verdict. The only goal of the defense is to remove the possibility of a death penalty. However, the verdict on the wrong doing of Tsarnaev’s actions have already been decided.