Running Away: Jahar Tsarnaev and the Death Penalty

On a street corner in the bustling city of Cambridge, Mass., stands a sales rack sporting blue T-shirts with bold yellow print: BOSTON STRONG, they read. Half a year after the Boston Marathon Bombing, the message of resilience in the face of adversity stares Massachusetts and the entire United States in the face. Amid the patriotic stories of American resiliency following the bombing, it is easy to forget that surviving bomber Jahar Tsarnaev once roamed those very streets; Cambridge was his home. With the six-month anniversary of the bombing slipping quickly into the past, a decision on Jahar’s fate is rapidly approaching. The question of whether he will receive the death penalty—a question with implications for the future of the institution of American capital punishment—looms ahead.
In a 30-count indictment, Jahar has been charged with the murder of four people and with using weapons of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts make Jahar death-eligible. These charges surround the killing spree that began on April 15, when Jahar and his brother Tamerlan planted bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 260. The trail of blood did not end there. The two brothers forced a citywide lockdown and killed an MIT police officer, among other horrors, in the days following the bombing. By the end of January, prosecutors will announce whether they will seek the death penalty for Jahar Tsarnaev. They will base this decision upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s recommendation.
Politically, seeking death makes sense. According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 63 percent of Americans favor the death penalty, compared with 32 percent who oppose it. Anyone who even remotely entertains the possibility of the rectitude of capital punishment would likely support seeking the death penalty for Jahar. As the death penalty abolitionist Harvard Law School professor Carol Steiker told the HPR, “My older brother, who’s also a lawyer, said sheepishly to me that it’s hard to imagine a better case than this one [for the death penalty to be imposed].” If there is any case that makes someone against the death penalty, such as Steiker’s brother, understand why other people might support it, it is Jahar Tsarnaev’s. Carol Steiker also pointed out that people who disagree with capital punishment in theory may support it in certain cases, particularly cases as heinous as Jahar’s.
In fact, if Holder were to decide against seeking the death penalty, he would be making a bold political statement that would likely arouse the patriotic indignation of people across the country. Such a move is not politically savvy; it is politically suicidal. To many Americans, Jahar symbolizes hatred for their lifestyle. In a country in which patriotism is embedded deeply in the public psyche, not threatening to eradicate such a symbol with death would probably be extremely unpopular. Furthermore, Holder has nothing to lose politically by approving the death penalty in the Tsarnaev case. Permitting the prosecution to seek death is only the first tiny step in a long process that may or may not spell death for Jahar, and it is hard to imagine Holder being criticized for taking that step.
Interestingly, though, the people of Boston—the determined people buying and proudly wearing the Boston Strong shirts—oppose the death penalty for Jahar. A Boston Globe poll revealed that only 33 percent of Boston residents believe that Jahar should be sentenced to death, while 57 percent prefer life imprisonment. Regardless of Boston’s liberal reputation, the fact that the very people most directly impacted by the bombing support the death penalty less than the country as a whole speaks volumes about the death penalty’s lack of retributive value and consequent lack of moral imperative. Arguably, it speaks volumes about the death penalty’s future in this country.
These polls seem to indicate that Boston already feels strong enough, with or without Jahar Tsarnaev walking the same earth. The strong Boston Marathon runners who ran that fateful day half a year ago ran towards something: a finish line, a goal, a dream. That same day, Jahar Tsarnaev ran away from dead bodies and blown-apart body parts, visceral screams, and nauseating carnage. Less than half a year from now, some of those same runners and countless new ones will run toward that city crowned “Boston Strong.” Regardless of whether Eric Holder seeks death for Jahar and regardless of whether Jahar’s future jury imposes it, Jahar Tsarnaev will now forever be running away.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons