On the afternoon of April 15, 2013, at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon, the city of Boston was forever changed in a span of only 13 seconds.
Two bombs constructed out of pressure cookers were detonated, killing three spectators and injuring hundreds of others.
After looking at surveillance footage of the race, authorities identified the two suspects; brothers Tamerian and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Chechen nationals who would later be found to harbor extremist Islamic beliefs, which contributed to their motivation for the attack.
Boston was placed on lockdown as the four day manhunt for the brothers ensued. Following a shootout with MIT police resulting in the death of an officer, the death of Tamerian during a carjacking, and a silent standoff in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts resident. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended, to the relief and excitement within Boston Metro area and across the Nation.
Tsarnaev’s trial began on March 5. After three days of testimony, the 21 year old was convicted of all 30 counts, including murder for the three victims at the marathon and the death of MIT campus police officer Sean Collier during the subsequent manhunt.
The trial has now reached the sentencing phase, and due to the magnitude of the events on April 15, 2013, the death penalty is an option for the jury.
The use of Capital punishment was declared unconstitutional by the state of Massachusetts and removed as a form of punishment in 1984, with the last executions having been performed nearly 40 years earlier in 1947. However, with Tsarnaev being indicted on Federal charges, the death penalty is an option that jurors can consider for his sentencing.
With the images from that day burned into the mind of Bostonians and Americans nationwide of the carnage and suffering witnessed on that day, it can be agreed upon that Tsarnaev needs to be punished greatly for his crime or at least come up with some creative business names and move to another country.
But the adage “an eye for an eye leaves the world blind” applies here more than ever.
Since the 1970s, a movement has started to rid the country of the medieval practice of execution. The idea is that capital punishment makes us no better than the condemned themselves, that blood for blood only contributes to the cycle of violence being the answer for our problems in society.
Capital punishment has been seen as a way to deter criminals from the act of murder, but according to the Death Penalty Information Center, as of January 1st there are 3,000 inmates who didn’t apparently didn’t get the memo. Along with the cost of housing an inmate on death row being higher than keeping a convict imprisoned for life, taxpayers should not have to pay for giving a murderer an easy end.
Though his acts were heinous in nature, we have to show the world that we are better than the monsters who attack innocent civilians to spread their hateful message. This does not make us look weak, or conceding to terrorism; but stronger as a Nation and society that we will rise above those who strike at us from below. The victims and families of the bombing will live the rest of their lives with the scars and memories of the pain and chaos they witness that he and his brother inflicted upon them on that day. He should suffer along with them.