Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Dzokhar Tsarnaev was
convicted Wednesday of dozens of charges for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing:
Tsarnaev kept his hands folded in front of him and looked down at the defense table as listened to the verdict, reached after a day and a half of deliberations. He was found guilty on charges that included conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction - offenses punishable by death.
His conviction was practically a foregone conclusion, given his lawyer's startling admission during opening statements that Tsarnaev carried out the attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.
The defense focused not on whether Dzokhar Tsarnaev participated, but on his level of participation, arguing that Tamerlan pressured Dzokhar to go along with him.
The question now is whether Tsarnaev will receive the death penalty, which is possible in a Massachusetts, a state without the death penalty, because he has been found guilty of federal crimes. The same jury that convicted Tsarnaev will make that decision in a separate phase of the trial, which will begin April 13, just a week before the Boston Marathon is run again.