Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been convicted by a Boston jury after 11.5 hours of deliberation.
Tsarnaev has been declared guilty of all 30 federal charges. Seventeen carry the death penalty.
The charges, as listed in full by Boston's WBUR radio website, include:
- Using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) resulting in death/aiding and abetting (multiple times - for pressure cooker bombs during the marathon and four days later, on April 19, 2013, as well as a pipe bomb);
- Conspiracy to use an WMD resulting in death/aiding and abetting;
- Conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, resulting in death;
- Bombing of a place of public use, resulting in death/aiding and abetting (multiple charges - for each pressure cooker bomb during the Marathon and for a third bomb four days later; also for a pipe bomb in that attack - ed.);
- Possession and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death/aiding and abetting (twice - for each pressure cooker bomb - ed.; also a third time for use of a Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun);
- Conspiracy to maliciously destroy property, resulting in death;
- Malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive, resulting in death/aiding and abetting (twice - for each pressure cooker bomb - ed.);
- Carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury/aiding and abetting;
- Interference with commerce by threats and violence/aiding and abetting. .
Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 15, 2013 marathon. Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to the 30 federal charges and now faces the possibility of the death penalty.
Tsarnaev has confirmed that his older brother Tamerlan was behind the attack and that he “wanted to defend Islam from attack.”
The FBI discovered Tamerlan Tsarnaev sent text messages to his mother as early as 2011 suggesting he was willing to die for Islam.
Following the bombings, the interfaith group Americans for Peace and Tolerance said that the mosque attended by the two brothers “has a curriculum that radicalizes people.”