Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers who were arrested for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, was convicted on Wednesday of all 30 charges that were found against him, including the deaths and injuries that were involved. The jury will now deliberate on whether Tsarnaev would receive a death penalty or a life sentence in prison.
Reports say that the process of reading all of the charges against him took some 30 minutes to complete.
Three people--including 8-year-old Martin Richard; Krystle Campbell, a restaurant manager; and Lu Lingzi, a Chinese graduate student--were killed, and over 250 people were injured during the incident, many of whom lost limbs.
Tsarnaev was also found guilty of killing an MIT police officer, stealing the car of Dun Meng, and injuring Richard Donohue, a transit officer.
"First, I want to thank everyone for supporting me and my family over the last two years," tweeted Donohue. "Although we cannot change the past, including the loss of a friend and fellow police officer, justice has been served today. We have again shown, as a society, that terrorism will not prevail, and we will hold those accountable for their acts against our nation. God bless America."
"I am thankful that this phase of the trial has come to an end, and I am hopeful for a swift sentencing process," said Martin Walsh, the mayor of Boston. "I hope today's verdict provides a small amount of closure for the survivors, families, and all impacted by the violent and tragic events. The incidents of those days have forever left a mark on our city."
According to multiple reports, Tsarnaev's lawyer Judith Clarke has been asserting that it was his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that was behind all of the planning of the attacks, and that Dzhokhar Tsarnev was "pressured" into participating alongside his brother. Prosecutors argue that he played an equal role with his brother.
"These were deliberate choices, these were political choices," said Aloke Chakravarty, an assistant United States attorney.
"This was a cold, calculated, terrorist act," he continued. "This was intentional. It was bloodthirsty. It was to make a point. It was to tell America that 'We will not be terrorized by you anymore -- we will terrorize you.'"
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a gunfight with the police in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drove over his brother during the fight.
The schedule for the next phase of the case for the jury's sentencing decision has not yet been determined.
