Bomber’s sentencing defense rests

BOSTON – Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers rested their case Monday in their bid to save him from execution after death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean testified that he expressed genuine sorrow for the victims.

“No one deserves to suffer like they did,” Prejean quoted him as saying.

The prosecution wrapped up its case as well Monday. The sides will return Wednesday to give closing arguments, after which the federal jury will decide whether the 21-year-old Tsarnaev should be put to death or receive life in prison.

Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun whose story was told in the 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking,” met with Tsarnaev five times since March at the request of the defense.

Prejean, who smiled at Tsarnaev several times during her testimony, said she could hear “pain” in his voice when he said he regretted what happened to the victims in the 2013 attack, which left three people dead and more than 260 wounded.

“I had every reason to think that he was taking it in and that he was genuinely sorry for what he did,” Prejean testified as the final witness for the defense in the penalty phase of the trial.

Prosecutors had fought unsuccessfully to keep Prejean off the witness stand.

During cross-examination by prosecutor William Weinreb, Prejean acknowledged she’s considered one of the leading death penalty opponents in the country and believes no one deserves to be executed, no matter what the crime.

Liz Norden, the mother of brothers J.P. and Paul Norden, who each lost a leg in the bombings, was unmoved by what Prejean had to say about Tsarnaev.

“If he was that remorseful, then he should have gotten up on the stand and said how sorry he is,” Norden said. “To have other people get up and talk on his behalf, it means nothing to me.”

The 12-member jury must be unanimous for him to get the death penalty. If even one juror votes against execution, he will be sentenced to life in prison.