UPDATE: ​“Family mem­bers of two Massachusetts mur­der vic­tims, includ­ing the police offi­cer who was killed by the Tsarnaevs, have spo­ken out con­cern­ing their views on the sen­tence they believe should be imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bomb­ing. Now Bill and Denise Richards, par­ents of 8‑year-old Martin Richards, the youngest vic­tim killed in the Boston Marathon bomb­ing, have added their voic­es and called on fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors to drop the death penal­ty in exchange for ter­mi­na­tion of all appeals in the case. In a state­ment in the Boston Globe, the Richards write: ​“the sto­ry of Marathon Monday 2013 should not be defined by the actions or beliefs of the defen­dant, but by the resilien­cy of the human spir­it and the ral­ly­ing cries of this great city. We can nev­er replace what was tak­en from us, but we can con­tin­ue to get up every morn­ing and fight anoth­er day. As long as the defen­dant is in the spot­light, we have no choice but to live a sto­ry told on his terms, not ours. The minute the defen­dant fades from our news­pa­pers and TV screens is the minute we begin the process of rebuild­ing our lives and our family.

Robert Curley (pic­tured, l.), whose 10-year-old son, Jeffrey, was mur­dered in 1997, appeared on necn news to dis­cuss his views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the Tsarnaev case. Curley said he came to oppose the death penal­ty after the tri­als of the men who mur­dered his son con­vinced him that ​“the sys­tem is just not fair” and could not be trust­ed to reach the right result in cap­i­tal cas­es. Curley said he believes Tsarnaev should receive life with­out parole because a death sen­tence would mean end­less appeals, but a life sen­tence would mean he would, ​“go away nev­er to be heard from again.” Jennifer Lemmerman, the sis­ter of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, who was killed in the after­math of the Boston marathon bomb­ing, also said Tsarnaev should be sen­tenced to life in prison. ​“Whenever some­one speaks out against the death penal­ty, they are chal­lenged to imag­ine how they would feel if some­one they love were killed. I’ve been giv­en that hor­ri­ble per­spec­tive and I can say that my posi­tion has only strength­ened,” Lemmerman wrote. She went on to say, ​“I also can’t imag­ine that killing in response to killing would ever bring me peace or jus­tice.… I choose to remem­ber Sean for the light that he brought. No more dark­ness.” Tsarnaev was con­vict­ed of 30 charges, includ­ing 17 that could result in a death sen­tence. The jury will con­sid­er his sen­tence dur­ing the penal­ty phase of the tri­al, set to begin April 21.

(“Life Sentence Vs. Death Penalty for Tsarnaev,” necn news (video), April 13, 2015; J. Ellement, ​“Sister of slain MIT offi­cer oppos­es death penal­ty for Tsarnaev,” Boston Globe, April 13, 2015; ​“To end the anguish, drop the death penal­ty,” Boston Globe, April 16, 2015.) See Victims and New Voices.

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