In a debate held by the Boston Globe, all five Democratic can­di­dates for gov­er­nor of Massachusetts said they oppose the death penal­ty for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Candidate Don Berwick said, ​“The death penal­ty has no place in our jurispru­dence.” Juliette Kayyem, in an ear­li­er state­ment on her Facebook page, said, ​“I have, based on my prin­ci­ples and on my work in death penal­ty appeals lit­i­ga­tion in Alabama, always opposed the death penal­ty.” The oth­er can­di­dates in agree­ment were Martha Coakley, Steve Grossman, and Joe Avellone. The cur­rent gov­er­nor, Deval Patrick, has also said, ​“I am philo­soph­i­cal­ly opposed to the death penal­ty.” Earlier, the Republican guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Charlie Baker said he sup­ports the deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty against Tsarnaev.

(S. Ebbert, ​“All 5 Democratic guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­dates oppose death penal­ty for Marathon bomb sus­pect,” Boston Globe, February , 2014). See New Voices and Federal Death Penalty.

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