Closing arguments set in Boston Marathon bombing trial
Published 11:05 am Monday, April 6, 2015
BOSTON (AP) — Victims of the Boston Marathon bombing have gathered in court to listen to closing arguments in the federal death penalty trial of admitted bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR’ tsahr-NEYE’-ehv).
Marc Fucarile and Karen Rand McWatters, who each lost a leg in the bombing, were in U.S. District Court on Monday. The parents of an 8-year-old boy killed in one of the explosions also were there to listen to prosecutors and Tsarnaev’s lawyers sum up their cases.
Judge George O’Toole Jr. gave the jury instructions on the law before the lawyers were scheduled to give closing arguments.
O’Toole told the jury that Tsarnaev is charged with conspiring with his older brother, Tamerlan, to bomb the marathon in April 2013. The judge said the government must prove that Tsarnaev agreed with his brother to use a weapon of mass destruction and voluntarily joined in the plan to commit that crime.