Marathon bomber offers apology

BOSTON – In a thick Russian accent – with his head bowed and body shaking – the man who appeared cold and emotionless throughout his trial for blowing up the Boston Marathon two years ago stood in federal court Wednesday and apologized for detonating one of two bombs at the historic race.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, stood nervously in a courtroom packed with survivors, jurors, lawyers and the federal judge who would shortly thereafter formally sentence him to death. He repeatedly invoked his Muslim faith while telling victims, “I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering I have caused you, and for the terrible damage I have done. Irreparable damage.”

He added, “If there is any lingering doubt, let there be no more. I did do it along with my brother.” Of the bombings, he said, “I am guilty.”

The words of admission and regret, the first he has uttered publicly, fell on the ears of several dozen victims and relatives of the dead gathered in the courtroom. Earlier in the day, 23 of them – some still angry and suffering, others ready to move on and forgive – told the judge how the April 15, 2013, bombings had forever ripped apart their lives.

Many dismissed Tsarnaev’s statement as inadequate. “A simple believable apology would have been nice,” said Lynn Julian, an actress who suffered a concussion in the attack. “But there was nothing sincere or believable in what he said.”

Scott Weisberg, a physician who lost much of his hearing, agreed: “I don’t think it was genuine.”

But Henry Borgard, a young English major who now walks with the aid of a service dog, said he has forgiven Tsarnaev. “I have come to a place of peace and I genuinely hope he does as well,” Borgard said. “For me to hear him say he is sorry, that is enough for me.”

It was a day of raw emotion in the federal courthouse, beginning with the victims’ statements, followed by the startling announcement that Tsarnaev would speak publicly for the first time since the trial began, and ending with U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. telling him, “I sentence you to the penalty of death by execution.” Though the federal jury had previously voted to impose the death penalty, O’Toole’s sentence made it official.

Tsarnaev was escorted out of the courtroom by two U.S. marshals. Prosecutors said he will be taken to federal prison, possibly the supermax fortress in the Colorado Rockies, and eventually to federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. There, he will become the youngest federal inmate waiting to surrender his life for murdering three people and injuring more than 260 others in the twin pressure-cooker bombings, and killing a police officer during the subsequent manhunt.

For most of the two-month trial, Tsarnaev’s silence made him something of an enigma to jurors and the public. He declined to testify in his own defense. And despite briefly choking up when his Russian aunt testified about his upbringing, Tsarnaev displayed no emotion through often gruesome medical testimony about injuries and heart-wrenching accounts from eyewitnesses.

On Wednesday, Tsarnaev’s four-minute statement offered the only firsthand insights to date about the young man’s state of mind, motives and thoughts about the attack.

“I am a Muslim. My religion is Islam,” he said. “I ask Allah to bestow his mercy on those present here today. I pray for your relief, for your healing, for your well-being, for your strength.” He said, “I ask Allah to have mercy on me, my brother, and my family.”

Tsarnaev acknowledged how difficult it must have been for the victims and survivors to address the court earlier in the day, and he praised them for speaking “with strength and with patience and with dignity.”

At one point, he seemed to acknowledge criticisms that he had detached himself from the trial and ignored victims’ painful testimony. “I was listening,” he told the court.

He said the Koran teaches that “no soul is burdened with more than it can bear.” He also noted repeatedly that in the Islamic faith, this is the “blessed month of Ramadan to ask forgiveness of Allah.” He ended with, “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.”

In handing down the death sentence, O’Toole cited Julius Caesar and quoted an aria from Verdi’s Italian opera “Otello”: “Credo in un Dio crudel,” or “I believe in a cruel God.”

But O’Toole said someone who believes in a cruel God cannot also expect that God to “smile upon him.”

Many of the victims had their final say, too. Most did not look at Tsarnaev, and he did not look at them. None mentioned him by name, calling him instead “the defendant.” Some said they wished he had gotten help for his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who the defense said was the ringleader of the attack and who was killed during a police manhunt.

Some dismissed the younger brother as incompetent, a follower. “You failed as a soldier in jihad,” said William Campbell, whose daughter, Krystle Campbell, was among the dead. Said Karen McWatters, who lost her left leg: “You ruined so many lives. You also ruined your own. You will die alone in prison.”