New | US to seek death penalty for accused Boston bomber

Accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be put to death if he is found guilty of planting bombs that killed three people and wounded 264 at the Boston Marathon last year, the US government’s chief prosecutor said on Thursday.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that he was authorising trial prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Tsarnaev, who is charged with committing one of the largest attacks on US soil since Septemper 11, 2001.

“The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision,” Holder said. Holder had faced a Friday deadline for deciding whether to seek the death penalty as part of Tsarnaev’s upcoming trial in Boston.

The decision drew fire from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which pointed out the case would be prosecuted in a state that had scrapped the death penalty decades ago.

“I wish Federal officials would have respected the clear wishes of the people of Massachusetts, who were on the front lines in this tragic event,” Carol Rose, the executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts said.

A Boston Globe survey found last year that 57 per cent of Boston residents favoured life in prison for Tsarnaev, if he is convicted, with 33 per cent in favour of execution.

Prosecutors say that Tsarnaev, 20, and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan planted a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the race’s crowded finish line on April 15, last year, killing three people - including an 8-year-old boy. The blast also wounded 264 others, many of whom lost limbs.