Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts related to the attack and subsequent manhunt on April 8, 2015. The attacks killed three people, wounded more than 260 and spurred a massive manhunt throughout the Boston area.
BOSTON (CNN) — A judge formally sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death on Wednesday.
“Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you did,” Judge George O’Toole told him. “What will be remembered is you murdered and maimed innocent people.”
Addressing the court during his federal sentencing hearing, Tsarnaev acknowledged Ramadan and expressed gratitude to Allah, asking Allah to help the victims and their families. “If there is any lingering doubt, I did it along with my brother,” he said, referring to the bombing. “I ask Allah to have mercy on me, my brother and my family.”
Tsarnaev apologized during his federal sentencing hearing. “I would like to now apologize to the victims and the survivors,” he said. “I am sorry for the lives that I have taken.”
Earlier, families of the victims and survivors made victim impact statements, leaving some jurors in attendance in tears.
Just 75 people have received federal death sentences since modern death penalty laws went into force in 1988, according to the Death Penalty Information Center’s website.
Only three federal death sentences have been carried out:
• Timothy McVeigh was executed in June 2001 for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
• Juan Raul Garza, a marijuana trafficker convicted of murdering three drug dealers in Texas, also was executed in June 2001.
• Louis Jones, a decorated Gulf War veteran, was executed in March 2003 for the kidnapping and murder of a young female soldier in Texas.