Jurors in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been presented with somber testimony from several victims of the Boston marathon bombing. The Boston Globe reports:
“For six hours Thursday, [Bill] Richard and six other witnesses told jurors their personal accounts of helping bombing victims, or trying to help themselves, providing graphic details of the initial seconds and minutes after the bombs went off on April 15, 2013.”
Richard, the father of Martin Richard, spoke of the loss of his son, ABC News reports:
“’I saw a little boy who had his body severely damaged by an explosion,’ Bill Richard told the jury flatly. ‘I just knew from what I saw that there was no chance.’
At the very end of his testimony, the last for the week, prosecutors asked Richard how old his boy was when he was killed.
‘He was eight years old,’ Richard said.”
Image credit: Facebook
Richard’s daughter, Jane, who lost a leg, was also one of the 260 people who were injured in the attack.
USA Today reports that Rebekah Gregory, who also lost her leg in the bombing, testified as well:
“In court Wednesday, Gregory of Houston told how she tried to help her 5-year-old son, Noah, who cried, ‘Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,’ but her own injuries were too severe.
‘My bones were lying next to me on the sidewalk,’ Gregory said from the stand, a few feet from Tsarnaev. ‘At that point, I felt that was the day I would die.'”
Following her testimony, Gregory posted an open letter to Facebook:
In the letter, she writes:
“[Y]ou are a coward. A little boy who wouldn’t even look me in the eyes to see that. Because you can’t handle the fact that what you tried to destroy, you only made stronger.
And if your eyes would’ve met mine for just one second, you would’ve also seen that what you “blew up” really did BLOW UP.
Because now you have given me (and the other survivors) a tremendous platform to help others, and essentially do our parts in changing the world for the better.”
Rebekah Gregory being interviewed
Image Source: Screenshot
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense has admitted to the court that he carried one of the homemade bombs and placed it near the finish line that day. According to CNN:
“‘It was him,’ defense attorney Judy Clarke told jurors.”
Clarke is attempting to remove the death penalty from the list of possible outcomes by claiming that Dzhokhar was under the influence of his older brother at the time.
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