Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother were born to Anzor Tsarnaev, a Chechen, and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, an Avar.[21][22][23] In the years following World War II, the Tsarnaev family had been forcibly moved from Chechnya by the Soviet Union to the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.[24] Anzor and Zubeidat moved peripatetically across Central Asia during the late 20th century.[25] In 1986, the couple was married in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic,[26] and Tamerlan was born there the next day.[27] [28] Tsarnaev was born on July 22, 1993, in either Kyrgyzstan[1] or Dagestan,[2] in the Russian Federation.[29] The parents also have two daughters.[30] The family raised their children as Muslims;[31][32][33] after the attack, a relative described Anzor as a "traditional Muslim" who objected to extremism.[34]

Tsarnaev spent the first years of his life in Kyrgyzstan.[35][24] In 2001, the family moved to Makhachkala, Dagestan, in the Russian Federation.[36][4][37] In April 2002, the Tsarnaev parents and Dzhokhar went to the United States on a 90-day tourist visa.[38][39][40] Anzor Tsarnaev successfully[41] applied for asylum, citing fears of deadly persecution due to his ties to Chechnya.[42] Tamerlan had been left in the care of his uncle Ruslan in Kyrgyzstan[24] and arrived in the U.S. about two years later.[43] The parents then filed for asylum for their four children, who received "derivative asylum status".[44] They settled on Norfolk Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Tamerlan lived until his death.[45]

The family "was in constant transition" for the next decade.[24] Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva both received welfare benefits.[46] The father worked as a backyard mechanic and the mother worked as a cosmetologist[47] until she lost her job for refusing to work in a business that served men. In March 2007, the family was granted legal permanent residence.[43] Tsarnaev would eventually become a U.S. citizen while in college.[4][40][48] Zubeidat also became a U.S. citizen, but whether Anzor ever did is unknown. Tamerlan was unable to naturalize expeditiously because an investigation against him held up the citizenship process.[49]

Tsarnaev attended Cambridgeport Elementary School and Cambridge Community Charter School's middle school program.[50] At Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school, he was an avid wrestler and a Greater Boston League winter all-star.[4][45] He sometimes worked as a lifeguard at Harvard University.[51]

In 2011, he contacted a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who taught a class about Chechen history, expressing his interest in the topic.[52] He graduated from high school in 2011[4] and the city of Cambridge awarded him a $2,500 scholarship that year.[45] His brother's boxing coach, who had not seen them in a few years at the time of the bombings, said that "the young brother was like a puppy dog, following his older brother."[53][54]

Tsarnaev enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in September 2011. He started with a marine biology major with the intent on becoming a director but later changed to nursing.[4][55]

Tsarnaev was described as "normal" and popular among fellow students. His friends said he sometimes smoked marijuana,[56] liked hip hop, and did not talk to them about politics.[57] Many friends and other acquaintances found it inconceivable that he could be one of the two bombers at first,[52] calling it "completely out of his character".[58] He was not perceived as foreign, spoke American English without any accent,[57] was sociable, and was described by peers as "[not] 'them'. He was 'us'. He was Cambridge."[59]

On the Russian-language social-networking site VK, Tsarnaev described his "world view" as "Islam" and his personal priorities as "career and money".[45] He posted links to Islamic websites, links to videos of fighters in the Syrian civil war, and links to pages advocating independence for Chechnya.[60] Tsarnaev was also active on Twitter. According to The Economist, he seemed "to have been much more concerned with sport and cheeseburgers than with religion, at least judging by his Twitter feed";[61] however, according to The Boston Globe, on the day of the 2012 Boston Marathon, a year before the bombings, a post on Tsarnaev's Twitter feed mentioned a Quran verse often used by radical Muslim clerics and propagandists.[62]

In 2012, Arlington Police ran a warrant check on Tsarnaev and checked his green Honda when they were investigating a report of underage drinking at a party in Arlington Heights.[63]

At the time of the bombing, Dzhokhar was a sophomore living in the UMass Dartmouth's Pine Dale Hall dorm.[62][64] He was struggling academically, having a 1.09 GPA and receiving seven failing grades over three semesters, including Fs in Principles of Modern Chemistry, Introduction to American Politics, and Chemistry and the Environment[45] and had an unpaid bill of $20,000 to the university.[65] He was known to be selling marijuana to make money.[66]

On April 22, Tsarnaev was charged via a complaint with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death" and with "malicious destruction of properties resulting in death", both in connection with the Boston Marathon attacks.[113][114] He was read his Miranda rights at his bedside by a federal magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, nodded his head to answer the judge's questions, and answered "no" when asked whether he could afford a lawyer.[94] After being read his Miranda rights, Tsarnaev stopped talking and declined to continue to cooperate with the investigation.[82]

In June 2013, Tsarnaev was indicted by a federal grand jury on 30 charges.[115] Some of the charges were death-penalty eligible.[116]

Middlesex County prosecutors also brought criminal charges against Tsarnaev for the murder of Sean Collier. A surveillance camera at MIT captured the brothers approaching Collier's car from behind.[117]

Tsarnaev's arraignment for 30 charges, including four counts of murder, occurred on July 10, 2013, in federal court in Boston before U.S. magistrate judge Marianne Bowler. It was his first public court appearance.[118] He pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts against him, which included using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death.[119] Tsarnaev was represented by Miriam Conrad, David Bruck, William Fick, Timothy G. Watkins and Judy Clarke.[120]

On January 30, 2014, United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government would seek the death penalty against Tsarnaev.[121] A plea deal failed when the government refused to rule out the possibility of the death penalty.

Prosecutors initially argued that Tsarnaev's pre-Miranda statements should be admissible, invoking Miranda's public safety exception.[122]^: 136–37 However, the exception was not considered by the court because the prosecutors later decided not to use those statements in their case.[123]^: 643

The trial began on January 5, 2015. Tsarnaev was prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys William Weinreb and Aloke Chakravarty, of the Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston.[124] His defense team included federal public defender Miriam Conrad,[125] William Fick,[126] and Judy Clarke.[127] Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to all thirty charges laid against him. The proceedings were led by Judge George O'Toole.[128][129] Tsarnaev's attorney Judy Clarke admitted in her opening statement that Tsarnaev committed the acts in question, but sought to avert the death penalty by showing that his brother Tamerlan was the mastermind behind the acts.[130] Counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt also gave testimony.

On April 8, 2015, Tsarnaev was found guilty on all thirty counts of the indictment. The charges of usage of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, in addition to aiding and abetting, made Tsarnaev eligible for the death penalty.[16]

During the sentencing phase, the jury heard from victims of the bombing and Tsarnaev's friends and relatives.[131][lower-alpha 1] Tsarnaev, who had displayed little emotion throughout his trial, appeared to weep when his relatives testified on his behalf on May 4, 2015.[133] Bill and Denise Richard, parents of Martin Richard (the youngest of the three killed in the bombings and 1 of the 2 people killed by Dzhokhar's bomb, the other person being Chinese-exchange student Lingzi Lu), urged against a death sentence for Tsarnaev. They stated that the lengthy appeals period would force them to continually relive that day, and would rather see Tsarnaev spend life in prison without parole (possibility of release), and waive his right to appeal.[134]

On May 15, 2015, the jury recommended that Tsarnaev be sentenced to death by lethal injection on six of 17 capital counts.[17] According to the verdict forms completed by the jurors, three of 12 believed that Tsarnaev had taken part in the attack under his brother's influence; two believed that he had been remorseful for his actions;[135] two believed that Tamerlan, not Dzhokhar, had shot and killed Officer Collier; three believed that his friends still care about him; one believed that Tsarnaev's mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was to be blamed for the brothers' actions; one believed that Tsarnaev would never be violent again in prison.

On June 24, 2015, Tsarnaev faced his living victims in court as his death sentence was formally delivered. Victims and their families were able to present impact statements to the court, and Tsarnaev, who had been silent throughout his month-long trial, apologized to the injured and the bereaved in the bombings.[136]

ADX Florence, the prison housing Tsarnaev

The following morning, on June 25, 2015, Tsarnaev was transferred from Federal Medical Center, Devens to the United States Penitentiary, Florence High in Colorado; as of July 17, 2015, he had been transferred to ADX Florence.[137][138] A Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesperson stated that "unique security management requirements" caused the agency to place Tsarnaev in Colorado instead of United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana, where male death-row inmates are normally held.[139]

Tsarnaev appealed his sentence on the grounds that the trial should not have been held in Boston, that there were errors in jury selection and that the judge improperly excluded evidence that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man, Ibragim Todashev, committed a prior triple murder in Waltham on September 11, 2011, arguing that such evidence would suggest that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev acted under the influence of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and was possibly fearful of what would happen to him if he refused.[140]

The appeal was heard by a three-judge panel of the First Circuit on December 12, 2019.[140] On July 31, 2020, the First Circuit overturned the death sentence and three of the other convictions, agreeing that the judge failed to determine how much the potential jurors had been aware of the event during jury selection, and ordered a retrial with a new jury for the penalty phase of his trial. Tsarnaev remained in prison from multiple life sentences carried by the other uncontested convictions.[141][19][142] U.S. Circuit Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson, who wrote the opinion, clarified the ruling of the court. She stated, "Make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution."[143]

On March 22, 2021, the Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal from the Department of Justice,[144] and on October 13, 2021, the Department of Justice presented arguments in favor of reinstating the death penalty for Tsarnaev.[145] The Supreme Court ruled on March 4, 2022, in a 6–3 decision, that the First Circuit improperly vacated the death sentence that Tsarnaev had been given. The Court reversed the First Circuit's decision, reinstating the death penalty.[20]

Tsarnaev asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to consider four constitutional claims that had not been considered by the Supreme Court.[146] On January 10, 2023, the First Circuit heard the matter. Tsarnaev's attorneys argued that jurors in the case had lied about prior discussions of the case on Twitter and Facebook. The jurors, the attorneys say, claimed to have never discussed the case on social media, whereas the attorneys say the jurors actually did participate in discussions showing a strong bias against Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev's attorneys argued this lack of disclosure should have disqualified the jurors from serving.[147]

Image of Tsarnaev on the cover of Rolling Stone

Tsarnaev was the subject of a cover story for an August 2013 issue of Rolling Stone entitled "The Bomber: How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by His Family, Fell into Radical Islam and Became a Monster." The magazine drew heavy criticism for the flattering photo of Tsarnaev on the issue's cover. Boston Mayor Tom Menino wrote that the cover "rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment." Massachusetts State Police sergeant Sean Murphy said that "glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty; it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine".[149] The New York Times used the same photo on their front page in May 2013,[150] but did not draw criticism. Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi criticized those who took offense at the cover, arguing that they associated Rolling Stone with glamour instead of news,[151] stating that The New York Times did not draw the criticism that Rolling Stone did, "because everyone knows the Times is a news organization. Not everyone knows that about Rolling Stone ... because many people out there understandably do not know that Rolling Stone is also a hard-news publication."[151]

The editors of Rolling Stone posted the following response:

Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and our thoughts are always with them and their families. The cover story we are publishing this week falls within the traditions of journalism and Rolling Stone's long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day. The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens. –THE EDITORS[35]

Retailers such as CVS Pharmacy,[152] BJ's Wholesale Club (which additionally announced it would no longer carry Rolling Stone) [153] and others announced that they would no longer sell the issue.[154]

Adweek magazine ranked the cover the "hottest" of the year after it doubled newsstand sales to 120,000.[155] The cover photo was taken by Tsarnaev himself, not a professional photographer.[156]

• Alex Wolff in Patriots Day (2016): a thriller drama film about the Boston Marathon bombing and the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers
• Stronger (2017) by David Gordon Green: a drama film that chronicles the experience of survivor Jeff Bauman.
• American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing (2023), a Netflix series, was released on April 12, 2023 – three days before the 10th anniversary of the bombing.