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Trump Calls For Death Penalty For Boston Marathon Bomber After Court Overturns Death Sentence

Trump Calls For Death Penalty For Boston Marathon Bomber After Court Overturns Death Sentence
Alex Wong/Getty Images

The horrific bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 killed three people and wounded hundreds more.

One of the perpetrators, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was found guilty on 30 counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death.

Tsarnaev was sentenced to death, but a recent ruling from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week overturned that sentence, citing faulty juror selection. The judges, however, clarified that Tsarnaev would not be released from prison any time soon, if ever.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize the ruling.


The Trump administration is a substantial proponent of the death penalty. One year after Attorney General William Barr's Justice Department reauthorized federal executions, the United States executed its first federal prisoner in two decades last week. Another execution soon followed.

Now, 60 inmates are on federal death row.

Trump himself personally advocated for a death penalty ruling for the Exonerated Five—formerly known as the Central Park Five—who were accused of assaulting a woman. Trump paid for a full page ad in the New York Times calling for the Black and Brown teenagers' executions.

Regardless of their opinions on the sentencing of Tsarnaev, people thought Trump's priorities were hugely misplaced.






Trump's tweet came after the death toll for the virus surpassed 150 thousand, with many of his critics blaming Trump for deaths that could have been prevented with a national strategy and an early acknowledgment of the threat it posed.




The U.S. death toll of the virus is expected to reach over 200 thousand in the coming months.