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Good Riddance
As surely as the sun will set in the west this evening, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will soon be convicted of the Boston Marathon Bombing, very possibly in the next few hours. As you might imagine, everyone in Boston is refreshing their favorite news sites constantly.
There’s never been any question of the verdict: the defense has conceded from the beginning that their client participated in the bombings, the subsequent murder of Officer Collier, and the carjacking that followed. They’ve insisted, however, that Dzhokhar only did so because he was under the sway of his older brother, Tamerlan. The defense has spent much of the last few weeks trying to demonstrate how the very evidence that makes Dzhokhar’s guilt so certain also indicates that his brother was leading the charge throughout the process.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how a teenager could lose his moral compass after falling under the sway of a charismatic and violent older brother. It happens all the time, and it generally warrants our sympathy, though not always our excusing. But this case is different. Dzhokhar wasn’t simply guilty of a moment’s failure or a temporary lapse of judgement. He spent weeks building the bombs with his brother — in one of the defense’s lowest moments, they couldn’t help but point out that there were fewer of Dzhokhar’s fingerprints on the bombs than Tamerlan’s — even as they were living apart. Moreover, he was present and active during every stage of the case, from planting the bombs, to the murder of Officer Collier, to the carjacking, to the shoot-out with police that ended with him fleeing in a stolen car and accidentally running over his brother. No sibling is so charismatic that he can blind an otherwise decent kid to that much evil and cruelty spread out over that much time.
I wrote a while back about my ambivalence over the federal government seeking the death penalty in a case that took place almost entirely within one state’s borders, especially given that that state prohibits capital punishment. It seems cruel to the victims of other murders that their families are cheated of the justice Dzhokhar will hopefully get simply because their loved ones were killed by bombs laid by jihadists rather than guns wielded by murderers with any other motivation. Better for Massachusetts to have to explain to the rest of the country why we’re continuing to feed and clothe our most conspicuous killer for the next six decades than for the feds to clean up their mess for us, but water under the bridge at this point. I only hope — for the justice of Tsarnaev’s victims — that the jury approves a capital sentence and that the appeals process is brief.
Tom,
Agreed 100%. The ruthless senseless mass-murder of innocents should be greeted by the death penalty. Our Guantanamo and Israel’s prisoner problem would be much less if we faced up to this. The temptation to make fools deals forgetting the absolute nature of the crimes committed is absurd.
The Death Penalty exists for a reason. This is the reason.
Regards,
Jim
I have nothing but ill wishes for him. May the remainder of his life be painful on every level.
I agree with you about this belonging in Massachusetts courts. But state or federal, you are dreaming if you are hoping for a “brief” appeal process in a capital case. He is more likely to either be killed in prison (probably a real possibility in his case), or to outlive you and I, than to be executed by the state with any dispatch.
Sadly true.
There’s a line Dennis Prager quotes occasionally where someone asks a rabbi if there’s hope for something extremely unlikely. The rabbi responds “Hope!? There’s always hope. There’s just no chance.”
That’s how I feel about this one.
I suspect he will live out his days on death row in the Supermax in Florence, CO or in Terra Haute IN, where he will enjoy the soul-withering treatment of 23-hr-per-day seclusion.
Then they’ll execute him.
I should mention that the defense has done some things right: their cross examination of an FBI agent who was unaware that many of the Islamist tweets Tsarnaev made were actually quotes from various rap lyrics, or that a picture they claimed was of Mecca was actually one of a mosque in Grozny were quite something and worthwhile.
They haven’t done anything I’m aware of that’s been unethical or immoral, and I’m grateful for that.
Blow his legs off with a bomb and let him bleed to death.
And don’t tell him when it’s coming. Just do it one day.
Yeah. Me, too.
Having said that, the best—the very best—thing that could possibly happen for Tsarnaev’s surviving victims, and the families of those he murdered, is not that Tsarnaev is executed. It is, instead, that Tsarnaev eventually comes to grasp the worth of each of his victims and thus the enormity of his crime.
In fact, if I could ask God for a miracle, that’s the one I’d want—and not because I’m tender-hearted toward murderers. Really knowing and understanding what he has done would be excruciating for him. Far more painful than mere death.
Is this likely to happen? No. If we kill him, though, it’s impossible.
Verdict in: guilty of capital offenses.
I agree with Miffed White Male.
Sorry Kate, but the death penalty exists for a reason.
Even if he does repent and comes to regret what he’s done, it doesn’t erase the crime he committed, nor does it negate the punishment he so rightfully deserves.
I cannot believe the responses on this post. We Ricochetti are not supposed to be filled with hate. Yet here I find not just hate for the Muslim so-called criminal — the “Other” — but nothing less than Old Testament, fire-and-brimstone, string-em-up, barbaric glee at the prospect of the brutal execution of a poor, misguided young American minority.
Can you imagine what it is like to be Dzhokhar’s mother at this moment?
Most of the Tsarnaev family were a wonderful American success story. They were hard-working immigrants escaping the brutal oppression of their native land for the blessed Land of Opportunity. As Muslim immigrants in these times, they doubtless faced unfair discrimination and abuse from neighbors and government officials alike. Or do you think that the police really treated them the same as everyone else? Are you naive enough to think that they weren’t profiled every time they wanted to ride a plane?
Here they were, trying to be good Americans, but conflicted by the ugly fact that their adopted country, under the Bush administration, was waging war (and committing war crimes) against their faith across the Middle East, and openly supporting the brutal, genocidal Israeli regime. Then Obama comes into office, promising a change — but nothing changes. The drone strikes continue, and even escalate. Gitmo remains open, despite Obama’s promises. Is it any wonder that the Tsarnaev brothers grew disillusioned?
We can’t even fairly blame Tamerlan for his actions. It is our fault for driving him into the waiting arms of the radicals.
Dzhokhar deserves almost no blame. He was a kid, just 19 years old, obviously confused and under the influence of his older brother. Did none of us make stupid decisions as a teenager? Have we forgotten how easily the young are swayed by peer pressure? Dzhokhar needs understanding, and treatment — not condemnation, and certainly not execution.
In fact, it is outrageous that Dzhokhar is even eligible for the death penalty. Civilized nations have outlawed capital punishment, and Massachusetts has tried to follow suit, only to be overruled by the jack-booted thugs of the federal government. And what good would it do to execute this poor, misguided young man? There is no evidence that the death penalty has any effect on crime. It is nothing but an excuse for our worst instinct for bloody retribution, right out of the Code of Hammurabi. Have we learned nothing in 4,000 years?
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at” Dzhokhar. John 8:7. Who are we to judge?
Of course, all of the above is nonsense. How do you rate my attempt to present the arguments of the Left?
I missed the joke! Apologies!
I am quite comfortable hating on indiscriminate murderers.
And most of them are doing just fine.
The only time I am aware that Tamerlan felt victimized was when the boxing league he was champion of changed its rules to exclude non-citizens (as I understand it, it’s an Olympic feeder).
I understand and can sympathize with being enormously frustrated by that. I lose that sympathy when he turned used his anger to justify murdering other people.
By most accounts, Tamerlan was alternately charming and violent. He admitted to hitting one girlfriend (remember, this is a highly-decorated boxer) and also apparently slugged one of his sisters’s exes. It’s also believed that he was one of the assailants in a particularly gruesome triple-murder in 2011.
Did we make him do that?
Lots of kids have bad brothers and yet come out okay (often, at great risk to themselves and through great character). As I said though, Dzhokhar didn’t just have a brief failure of character and end up in trouble: he spent months preparing to murder dozens of people in cold blood, helped murder a police officer, and then tried to kill more of them in a shoot-out. That the death toll is so low is only because of his and his brothers’ stupidity in choice of venue.
If any of Massachusetts’ elected leaders have objected, please let me know; last I checked, no one had.
Frankly, I find this rather cowardly.
Tom, I think you may have missed my last 2 lines. I was being sarcastic — sort of a conservative answer to Colbert.
I am glad that Tsarnaev was convicted and will be perfectly satisfied to see him executed, if that is what the jury decides is appropriate in the circumstances. They will get to hear far more evidence than I.
I totally did. I put the bolded explanation in at top.
Sorry about that.
I really don’t care what his mother thinks. Sure, she claims her sons were set up, but how many Muslim women have we read about that brag about their martyred offspring?
I’m not filled with hate. I’m filled with a desire for justice, a justice that warrants the death penalty for this heinous crime.
I note the word “hate” creaping into this thread, originally as a sarcastic bit by AP, and then in Tom’s reply.
I honestly don’t hate him – or anyone. I believe his conviction is righteous and his execution would likewise be righteous. It is merely what he has earned for himself by his behavior.
The defense tried to make the case that he was led by his older brother. ?Just what difference does that make. He is not MR or even a juvenile. He is 19 – older than some of my Marines back in the day.
No quarter, no mercy. Those are for the LORD to hand out as He sees fit.
Yep. It’s the Lord’s job to judge. It’s just our job to arrange the meeting.
(I’ve seen this attributed to Norman Schwarzkopf.)
That’s OK. I’m actually pretty pleased to have fooled you!
AP # 18
And the 101st Airborneis said to have started the “Kill them all and let God sort it out”.
It was a little over the top. I notice the tongue in your cheek pretty early.
On the contrary, in Tsarnaev’s case, execution will probably hasten his realization of what he has done by bringing him before the judgement bar where he will have a perfect knowledge of all his guilt.
-E
I believe that dates back to the middle ages- “Kill them all, God will know his own”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_B%C3A9ziers
I missed the tongue-in-cheek too . . . well done!
Gotta love the Screaming Eagles.
Do you know the Sabaton song about them at the Battle of Bastogne? Here is the video:
Stad
Sorry Kate, but the death penalty exists for a reason.
Even if he does repent and comes to regret what he’s done, it doesn’t erase the crime he committed, nor does it negate the punishment he so rightfully deserves.
I know, I know. It was more difficult than it sometimes is to uphold my general disapproval of the death penalty…not because it’s too harsh (assuming we have the right guy, which in this case we obviously do) but because the death penalty isn’t what he deserves. We can’t give him what he deserves. We certainly can’t give him what he gave his victims. Even if we were to blow his legs off and let him bleed to death, he wouldn’t really be what his victims were: Unknowing, innocent.
Even if he comes to his realization before the Judgement Seat, the families of his victims will not know it. And—this is the paradox—it is this, alone, that actually makes a difference for them. Killing him gives him just death. Plain old death. Same death he would eventually arrive at anyway, to stand before the same Judgement Seat. God’s got lots of time for Tsarnaev. I say let him stew awhile here.
Incidentally, I was thinking about this last night, because we got into an argument re: Gitmo, and someone said “after we’ve extracted all the intel from them, then we execute them.”
And it struck me that evil people are a valuable source of “intel.” Tsarnaev is a source of information about how and why people do evil things. And it’s not just what he knows right now— in twenty years, with the benefit of hindsight and the alteration of perspective time and age inevitably bring, he might be able to tell us quite a lot that would be valuable.
Maybe we shouldn’t have executed Goring and the others after Nuremberg? It was too bad that Himmler and Hitler executed themselves (plain old death, again): they, too, were sources of intel that were lost to history, psychology, criminology, theology…
Hang by a rope on a scaffold in Boston Commons (just like the old days). I’m actually serious. We should bring back public hangings for the death penalty. If the state is not willing to do it in public then it shouldn’t be done. There is no denying that public executions have a deterring effect. The death penalty should be sparsely used, but when used it should be public.