Colorado Witness To Boston Marathon Bombing Reacts To Guilty Verdict
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4)- A Colorado man who witnessed the Boston Marathon bombing reacted to Wednesday's guilty verdict. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all charges Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a jury that will now decide whether the 21-year-old should be executed or shown mercy for what his lawyer says was a crime masterminded by his big brother.
Henry Guzman from Boulder hopes the guilty verdict will help the survivors move on. He saw the bombings and said the memory he tries to carry with him is one of community uniting.
"Goodness will always triumph over evil. The forces of evil cannot diminish the spirit," said Guzman.
In court on Wednesday, Tsarnaev, the former college student, stood with his hands folded, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table in federal court as he listened to the word "guilty" recited on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy and deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts are punishable by death.
The verdict, reached after a day and a half of deliberations, was practically a foregone conclusion, given his lawyer's startling admission at the trial's outset that Tsarnaev carried out the terror attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.
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Guzman owns Flatirons Running Inc. in Boulder. He said the bombings had a far-reaching impact on the running community.
"Running is such a cathartic and personal thing and that has been taken away from a lot of people," said Guzman. "My hope is that for the people who were directly affected, that it does give some relief. My other hope is that it, as it did right after the race, is that it joined runners together."
Guzman, in this case, said he is in favor of the death penalty, "I'm not an advocate of the death penalty, by no means, but there is a price to pay. And a lot of people paid the greatest price in the world, which is with their lives, and you must repay that debt."
The defense strategy is to try to save Tsarnaev's life in the upcoming penalty phase by arguing he fell under Tamerlan's evil influence. The same jury will decide whether Tsarnaev will be sentenced to death or life in prison. A prison term would likely be served at the Supermax Federal Prison in Florence, Colorado.
The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 other people, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days.
Tsarnaev was found responsible not only for those deaths but for the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was gunned down days later during the brothers' getaway attempt.
