Feds to seek death penalty against accused Boston bomber Tsarnaev

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FBI via Reuters

Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is pictured in an undated FBI handout photo.

By Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent

The Justice Department has notified a federal judge that it intends to seek the death penalty if a jury convicts Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for last April’s bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon.

Tsarnaev is awaiting trial on charges that he and his brother built and planted two pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and injured at least 260 others. He is also charged with killing an MIT campus police officer.

Liz Norden, the mother of Boston bombing victims, responds to news that the Justice Department will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he is convicted.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement: “After consideration of the relevant facts, the applicable regulations and the submissions made by the defendant’s counsel, I have determined that the United States will seek the death penalty in this matter. The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision.”

Among the factors listed by the government were that the killings were intentional, resulted from acts calculated to cause grave risks to public safety, and were committed in a cruel manner. And prosecutors said the defendant has demonstrated no remorse.

“One way or another, based on the evidence, Tsarnaev will die in prison,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement. “In each milestone of this case — today’s announcement, the trial and every other significant step in the justice process — the people hurt by the Marathon bombings and the rest of us so shocked by it will relive that tragedy. The best we can do is remind each other that we are a stronger Commonwealth than ever, and that nothing can break that spirit.”

Liz Norden, the mother of two men who lost legs in the bombing, praised the decision.

"You know, it just makes me relieved that the attorney general believes that it was a terrorist attack or it's the death penalty and we support the decision," Norden told MSNBC's Craig Melvin. 

She noted that the Justice Department officials talked to victims' families before reaching the decision.

While most legal experts predicted the Justice Department would seek the death penalty, the decision will be somewhat controversial.

A poll conducted in September for the Boston Globe found that 57 percent of respondents favored a sentence of life without parole if Tsarnaev were to be convicted, while 33 percent thought death would be the appropriate punishment for the government to seek.

Dan Lampariello / Reuters

Explosion at the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013.

Executions in the federal system are rare.  In the modern era of the death penalty, since the U.S. Supreme Court forced a change in sentencing laws in the mid-1970s, the federal government has carried out just three executions. 

Timothy McVeigh was put to death in 2001 for his role in bombing the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. The most recent federal execution was more than a decade ago.

The federal execution system has been put on hold by a court battle over the combination of drugs used to administer a lethal injection. One of the drugs is no longer available, forcing the Bureau of Prisons to consider alternatives. 

In the event of a conviction and a recommendation of a death sentence, the execution by lethal injection would be carried out at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

A trial date has not been set for Tsarnaev. His next hearing is Feb. 12.

Legal experts have said that seeking the death penalty against Tsarnaev could give him an incentive to plead guilty to avoid being put to death.

This story was originally published on Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:21 PM EST

Some Boston Marathon survivors support death penalty decision

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Liz Norden, the mother of Boston bombing victims, responds to news that the Justice Department will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he is convicted.

By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

The federal government’s decision to seek the death penalty against the man accused of setting off two bombs with his brother at the Boston Marathon last year, killing three people and injuring 275 others, was met with support Thursday by some survivors and their families — but also left others, who are continuing to recover, at a “loss of words.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is awaiting trial on charges that he and his brother, Tamerlan, built and planted the pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line last April 15. Tamerlan died in the ensuing manhunt for the pair.

Liz Norden, whose sons Paul and J.P. both lost a leg in the bombing, said she backed the decision, announced by Attorney General Eric Holder.

“I felt it was very important that all the options are on the table for the jurors to decide, so I support it,” she told MSNBC.

But Rebekah Gregory, 26, who was seriously injured in the bombing along with her son, her fiancé and his sister, told NBC News she was at a “loss for words” over the decision.

Gregory, of Richmond, Texas, has been fighting to keep her left leg since the attack.

“I don’t even know how I feel about that. We’ve tried not to be involved in it as much as possible because I feel like he has already taken up enough of our time as it is. I don’t know what justice is in this situation. No matter if he is dead or alive, it doesn’t change anything for us,” she said, later adding: “He’ll get his judgment on Judgment Day, that’s how I feel.”

Norden said her sons had declined to meet with the Justice Department last summer about the attacks.

“Their only focus and main focus was on their recovery. They don't feel that whatever happens is going to change what happened to them,” she said, noting they’ve “come to terms” with what happened and are “moving on.”

“They're totally focusing on themselves getting better,” she said. “They’re very strong.”

Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Chinese national Lu Lingzi, 23, were killed in the bombings. Tsarnaev is also accused in the shooting death of MIT campus police officer, Sean Collier, 27.

A Richard's family spokesman said the family did not want to comment. Messages left seeking reaction from several survivors were not immediately returned.

Among the factors listed by the government in its decision were that the killings were intentional, resulted from acts calculated to cause grave risks to public safety, and were committed in a cruel manner. And prosecutors said the defendant has demonstrated no remorse.

While most legal experts predicted the Justice Department would seek the death penalty, the decision was expected to be somewhat controversial.

The ACLU of Massachusetts said it was “disappointed” with the decision.

“The ACLU opposes the death penalty in all cases, because it is discriminatory and arbitrary, and because it inherently violates the Constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment,” the group’s executive director, Carol Rose, said in a statement.

"In this case, it is important to keep in mind that the people of Massachusetts, through their elected representatives, have repeatedly rejected the death penalty. Even shortly after the horrible Boston Marathon bombing, a Boston Globe poll found that the people of Boston said two-to-one that they would prefer a sentence of life without parole for Tsarnaev, if he is convicted.”

A poll conducted in September for the Boston Globe found that 57 percent of respondents favored a sentence of life without parole if Tsarnaev were to be convicted, while 33 percent thought death would be the appropriate punishment for the government to seek.

NBC News’ Pete Williams contributed to this report.

'What an amazing present': Boston Marathon survivor makes bid to walk

  Courtesy of Rebekah GregoryRebekah Gregory, 26, has had 14 surgeries in a bid to save the leg, though she has faced constant pain and the prospect of amputation many times. By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC NewsEight months after twin bombings at the Boston Marathon nearly took one survivor’s left leg, she can finally put two feet on the ground.Rebekah Gregory, 26, has had 14 surgeries in a bid to save the leg, though she has faced constant pain and the prospect of amputation many times. She started physical therapy in the summer but had to stop when her doctors determined she would need to wear a device to get her foot into the right position if she hoped to ever walk on it again. That came off at Thanksgiving, when they replaced it with a cast. And on Monday, Gregory graduated to a walking boot.“To put two feet on the ground again was the most amazing feeling,” Gregory told NBC News Tuesday from her parents’ home in Richmond, Texas. “And just right before Christmas, too. It’s like, what an amazing present this year.”But Gregory still has a long way to go, a reminder she got the first moment she put her foot down in the boot.“It was awful. It was the worst pain all over again,” she said. “Putting it on the ground doesn’t feel right and it feels like it’s just crushing what bones I have left.”“It was the hardest thing to do to try to stand up and put weight on my leg,” she said.Gregory suffered multiple serious injuries in the April 15 attack on the iconic Boston road race that killed three people and wounded 275 others: she lost a lot of soft tissue in a series of what she calls “craters” going down her leg to her foot, and she endured multiple fractures to her foot as well as the loss of part of her fourth and fifth metatarsals. Doctors had to rebuild her ankle and she was treated for months for a painful bone infection.Her case was rare even among the more seriously wounded: while amputees moved ahead with prosthesis training and others recovered in rehabilitation, she was stuck many steps behind since salvaging such a severely-wounded leg is a slow process. She is believed to have been the last patient connected to the bombings released from the hospital when she was discharged on June 10 -- after 56 days in medical centers in Boston and Houston.How much use she will have of her leg and foot won’t be clear for another six months to a year, said one of her physicians, Dr. William McGarvey, an orthopedic surgeon at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. There are still many unanswered questions, including how much stability, neurological function and muscle use she will have.“I gave her the boot yesterday and gave her the green light to be able to get up, just try and put some weight on it,” he said. “The entire leg is structurally different and functionally, certainly, just from not using it. … The first few weeks are just basically getting used to her foot as it is.”But this phase was a “huge milestone” in her recovery and amputation was less likely as she moves forward, said McGarvey, chief of foot and ankle surgery at UTHealth.“She’s seeing that the effort and the energy she’s expended to try and get well, and that have gone into trying to heal her, have actually borne some fruit.”Gregory said she at first was disappointed Monday that she couldn’t walk out of the doctor’s office in the boot. It will be a while before she can do that, with weight bearing on her foot being the first challenge. But she did realize her efforts have paid off on Tuesday morning while looking at pictures of herself in the intensive care unit in Boston on a ventilator in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. “It just hit me: I’ve come such a long way and even though I have such a long way to go, I’m so blessed for this journey and to be able to help people and inspire people along the way,” she said.McGarvey cleared Gregory for another first following the bombing: taking a bath. She spent a few hours in the tub on Tuesday and checked out her lower left leg, which was hidden under devices and the cast a lot of the time. It bears the many scars of that day, when she went with her boyfriend-now-fiancé Pete DiMartino to watch his mom compete in the marathon. He and his sister, as well as Gregory’s six-year-old son, Noah, were also injured in the blast. Eric Kayne / for NBC News fileBoston bombing survivor Rebekah Gregory, right, speaks with physical therapist Andrew Hyde during a physical therapy session, on July 25, 2013 in Katy, Texas.“I keep going even though it’s really hard some days,” she said. “Every day I wake up, I have the choice to wallow in self-pity or get up and try to do something to progress that day … whatever I can do to make that day worth it because every single day is so precious.”The family was honoring that attitude this Christmas Eve: they all assembled at the home of her parents outside Houston, where they were “in the middle of flour and sugar and everything else,” quipped Gregory, who keeps positive amid some of her toughest times.Her mom, Tina, said she had to admit she was anxious about the next part of her eldest daughter’s journey: “You’re afraid it’s not going to be perfect or it’s not going to be as good as what we anticipate.”But at the same time, her being able to try and use her foot was “the best Christmas present ever, ever. There’s no comparison. Nothing – nothing -- could beat this.”Though Gregory has never ruled out amputation, she is clear on one thing: She will walk again.“No matter what happens, I am going to be fine. I am fine,” she said. “I’m just happy to be able to see another day.”Do you have a Boston Marathon story? Share it with reporter Miranda Leitsinger at miranda.leitsinger@nbcuni.com or on Facebook.Related: