– Must be unanimous –
Tsarnaev’s chief defense lawyer Judy Clarke is one of America’s leading experts on capital punishment who has saved a string of high-profile clients from death row.
Statistics are on Tsarnaev’s side. Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1984, only 79 people have been sentenced to die and only three have been executed, says the Death Penalty Information Center.
They were Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh and drug trafficker Juan Garza in 2001, and Gulf War veteran Louis Jones in 2003 for the kidnap, rape and murder of a 19-year-old female Army recruit.
Three other defendants received death verdicts, which were turned into life sentences after new trials were granted.
A nationwide poll carried out last month showed that support for the death penalty has fallen to its lowest level in 40 years in America.
Yet the Pew Research Center still found that 63 percent of Americans believe the death penalty is morally justified for a crime like murder.
As with its guilty convictions earlier this month, the jury’s decision has to be unanimous. If just one juror believes in extenuating circumstances, then Tsarnaev will be sentenced to life in prison, Scheer said.
They must also be unanimous on whether the different aggravating factors are enough to sentence him to death.
“That is really a hard decision,” Scherr said.
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