<p>" And she says there hasn’t been a death penalty since it was added to the feds. Look up when the last execution in Mass occurred."</p>
<p>If he’s found guilty in a federal court that happens to be in Mass, then I don’t think he’d necessarily be imprisoned there. And if he gets the DP, and it’s carried out, it probably wouldn’t be in Mass. So, the Mass stats really aren’t relevant. </p>
<p>I think Terre Haute is the penitentiary that holds the fed DP inmates. There may be others. That’s the one I know about. </p>
<p>I think he’ll be convicted. The prosecutors have too much evidence. As far as I can tell from a quick online search, some of his UMass Dartmouth friends are still in prison; they may make a deal to testify against him.</p>
<p>A federal jury in Massachusetts issued the death penalty for Gary Sampson in 2003. A federal judge set that aside in 2011, but the prosecutors are apparently going for a new trial. So, the federal court system has sentenced someone to death in Massachusetts in this century.</p>
<p>The FBI also has Tsarnaev’s computer, so I presume there’s evidence in his emails. </p>
<p>People also really, really liked Sean Collier, the MIT police officer who had the misfortune to encounter the Tsarnaev brothers. With 250 injured, it might be hard to find someone who doesn’t know a victim. Marathon runners and spectators come from all over the state.</p>
<p>I would not bet on Tsarnaev escaping the death penalty. He’s not crazy. He’s a cold blooded killer.</p>
The death penalty. When I heard that only 5 of the jurors found that the defense had proven that Tamerlan influenced him to become radicalized, I thought that was a bad sign for him.
I don’t see why we should have to pay millions of dollars to have him killed. Why couldn’t he just get a life sentence so that he could rot for what he did?
Post #27, He won’t be killed especially for state like California and Massachusetts. Probably end up rot in jail. I bet you that’s why he got the death penalty.
So help me understand the difference between death penalty and life sentence. I don’t know the law so I’m guessing death penalty has no chance of parole and life sentence has a small chance of it being reduced to less than life , i.e. it could be 30 or 40 years, but if he serves these years, he will get out and be a free man? Is that the case?
@DrGoogle - A life sentence without parole is also an option as a sentence.
The death penalty sentence will cost taxpayers more in the long run - besides being barbaric IMO. This whole situation has just depressed me this afternoon and evening, especially asinine comments on facebook and such.
The only other sentence he could have received was life without parole. There would have been no getting out early.
I am opposed to the death penalty in all cases. State sanctioned murder puts US on a par with the worst of the worst countries, imo.
There will be appeals, and appeals, and appeals. And we’ll keep hearing about whenever something happens, like he’s denied, just as we do with Charles Manson, whose appeals are over with but who gets to apply for parole every few years. I agree that the death sentence is barbaric. And if they had given him life without parole, we’d be done!
I’m not ethically opposed to the death penalty, specially in open and shut horrific mass murder like this.
However, the way dp is implemented, with endless appeals, with activists turning dp inmates into celebrities, never letting the victim’s familes have healing, is wrong.
Life probably would have been better so he could rot away in obscurity. I’m all for executing him but as scholarme mentions there will be endless appeals.
I hope they arrange a burial at sea for him so his grave does not become a shrine. His brother is buried in a rural muslim cemetery a few miles from my home. They have no connection to Virginia and he was in the ground before local citizens knew he was being buried here. The small sheriff’s department had to waste resources guarding the grave.
With endless appeals, which exist to reduce the chance of mistakes (though they do happen), a death sentence often ends up being like a more expensive version of life without parole. Many death row prisoners die of natural causes.
If he had gotten life w/o parole, would there have been no appeals??
I know that those who are opposed to the DP often use the “endless appeals” argument, but wouldn’t there also be appeals if he had gotten Life w/o parole?
I doubt he’ll ever be executed, so those who are opposed to the DP shouldn’t be freaking out. He’ll more likely be “executed” by an inmate.
BTW…I am not a big fan of the DP unless the crime is heinous (this was) and they’re absolutely sure they have the right person (and there’s no doubt in this case).