EDITORIALS: Boston Globe Recommends No Death Penalty For Marathon Bomber

A recent Boston Globe edi­to­r­i­al called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder not to seek the death penal­ty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused of car­ry­ing out the bomb­ing at the Boston Marathon. The edi­tors said the lengthy death-penal­ty process would put the spot­light on the defen­dant to the detri­ment of the vic­tims: ​“Years of pro­ceed­ings, and their poten­tial cul­mi­na­tion in a death sen­tence, would also give Tsarnaev what he and his broth­er appar­ent­ly sought: pub­lic­i­ty and noto­ri­ety. Much bet­ter to let Tsarnaev slip into obscu­ri­ty in a fed­er­al prison cell,” the Globe wrote. In response to the pos­si­ble use of the death penal­ty as a bar­gain­ing chip, the edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed, ​“Such a strat­e­gy rais­es wor­ries about fair­ness under any cir­cum­stances, since it puts enor­mous pres­sure on defen­dants to give up their right to a tri­al.” Finally, the edi­to­r­i­al cit­ed a recent poll find­ing 57% of Boston res­i­dents in favor of life with­out parole for Tsarnaev if he is con­vict­ed. Read the full editorial below.

Eric Holder shouldn’t seek death for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

In the raw days after the Marathon bomb­ing in April, Mayor Tom Menino spoke for many Bostonians when he raised the prospect of exe­cut­ing those who were respon­si­ble. Though nor­mal­ly a death penal­ty oppo­nent, Menino said that the bar­bar­i­ty of the attack­ers, who killed four peo­ple and maimed dozens, might sway him.

Now, as sur­viv­ing sus­pect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces tri­al, that ques­tion looms for fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors, who are in the midst of a lengthy process to decide by Oct. 31 whether to seek the 19-year-old’s death by lethal injec­tion. It’s cer­tain­ly under­stand­able why many friends, fam­i­ly, and sup­port­ers of the vic­tims hope pros­e­cu­tors will seek the ulti­mate vengeance against the man they believe mas­ter­mind­ed the bomb­ing along with his old­er broth­er, Tamerlan. Still, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. should decide against it.

The death penal­ty is a deeply con­tentious issue, and indi­vid­ual view­points often spring from strong­ly held eth­i­cal and reli­gious beliefs. To many, exe­cu­tions are nev­er jus­ti­fied. Yet even ardent sup­port­ers of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment should rec­og­nize that in this case, it would be a mis­take for Holder to pur­sue the death penal­ty against Tsarnaev.

In addi­tion to the extra cost of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions — cas­es can exceed $10 mil­lion — death penal­ty cas­es drag on for years, through numer­ous appeals. Such lengthy pro­ceed­ings would ensure that the Marathon bomb­ing case lingers in the spot­light, com­pound­ing the sense of injury to vic­tims. Many peo­ple would feel com­pelled to defend Tsarnaev on the basis of his youth, lack of past offens­es, and being under the influ­ence of his old­er broth­er — all fac­tors that would mit­i­gate against a death sen­tence. Years of pro­ceed­ings, and their poten­tial cul­mi­na­tion in a death sen­tence, would also give Tsarnaev what he and his broth­er appar­ent­ly sought: pub­lic­i­ty and noto­ri­ety. Much bet­ter to let Tsarnaev slip into obscu­ri­ty in a fed­er­al prison cell, and stay there.

It’s pos­si­ble that pros­e­cu­tors are keep­ing the death penal­ty on the table pri­mar­i­ly to use as lever­age against Tsarnaev, hop­ing that he will agree to plead guilty, skip a tri­al, and accept life impris­on­ment in order to save his life. Such a strat­e­gy rais­es wor­ries about fair­ness under any cir­cum­stances, since it puts enor­mous pres­sure on defen­dants to give up their right to a tri­al. In this case, it’s also unnec­es­sary. The evi­dence against Tsarnaev is over­whelm­ing, and pros­e­cu­tors should have noth­ing to fear from bring­ing the case to trial.

Beyond the details of this par­tic­u­lar case, of course, lies the deep­er ques­tion of whether the death penal­ty itself is ever right. There is no nation­al con­sen­sus on the death penal­ty, and Holder needs to be sen­si­tive to dif­fer­ences of pub­lic opin­ion. The bomb­ing was a ter­ror­ist act aimed at this Commonwealth, where the death penal­ty has been repeat­ed­ly debat­ed and repeat­ed­ly reject­ed. A recent Globe poll found that Boston res­i­dents oppose the death penal­ty for Tsarnaev by a sol­id mar­gin. Of course, the attor­ney gen­er­al should be under no legal oblig­a­tion to con­sid­er the tem­per of the city. But per­haps it will give him the cov­er to make the right call. If Massachusetts can reject the death penal­ty, even after the most awful crimes, so can Holder.

(Editorial, ​“Eric Holder should­n’t seek death for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,” Boston Globe, September 29, 2013). See Editorials and Federal Death Penalty.