BOSTON // Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologised to his victims in court for the first time on Wednesday, moments before being formally sentenced to death by a federal judge.
The US citizen of Chechen descent was sentenced to death on six counts over the 2013 bombings, one of the worst assaults on American soil since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“I would like to now apologise to the victims and to the survivors,” said the 21-year-old in his first public remarks since the attack that killed three people.
“I am guilty,” he said, standing pale and thin in a dark blazer. “Let there be no doubt about that.”
The former university student said he listened throughout the 12-week trial as he learnt about the victims from often harrowing testimony.
“I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering, the damage that I have done,” he said, beginning his remarks in the name of Allah and asking for God’s forgiveness.
“I pray to Allah to bestow his mercy upon the deceased,” he said. “I ask Allah to have mercy upon me, upon my brother, upon my family.”
Judge George O’Toole officially imposed the death sentence, which had been reached unanimously by the 12-person jury on May 15.
“I sentence you to the penalty of death by execution,” Mr O’Toole told Tsarnaev, before he was led away by US Marshals.
Throughout the trial the man who came to the United States as a child and took citizenship in 2012, sat in silence, at times fidgeting but expressing little emotion.
On Wednesday, more than 20 victims and their relatives addressed the court, making harrowing impact statements summing up their grief, pain, anger and at times forgiveness.
The first to speak was the mother of Krystle Campbell, a young woman killed in the April 15, 2013 bombings.
“The choices you made were despicable,” said Patricia Campbell, addressing Tsarnaev directly as he bowed his head.
“What you did to my daughter was disgusting. The jury did the right thing.”
Bill Richard, the father of the youngest victim, eight-year-old Martin, said he would have preferred Tsarnaev receive a life sentence but said the attacks were “all on him”.
“He chose hate. He chose destruction. He chose death,” Mr Richard said.
“We choose love. We choose kindness. We choose peace. That is what makes us different.”
Defence lawyer Judy Clarke told the court that Tsarnaev had offered to plead guilty last year, but Wednesday’s remarks were the first time that her client had expressed any public remorse.
* Agence France-Presse
