Jurors deciding the fate of Tsarnaev, 21, were shown autopsy photos and heard a description of traumatic injuries suffered by an 8-year-old boy killed in the 2013 bombing that killed three and injured more than 260 near the finish line of the country’s most-famous marathon.
Tsarnaev faces 30 charges, many carrying the death penalty, for his alleged role in the bombing, which he blames of influence from his brother, Tamerlan, 26, who was killed as the two tried to escape in the days immediately following the catastrophe.
Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
But his defense team has conceded his role in the bombing while concentrating on sparing him from the death penalty in favor of life in prison without possibility of parole, according to the Associated Press.
Tsarnaev on Monday after jurors in his federal death penalty trial saw gruesome autopsy photos and heard a medical examiner describe the devastating injuries suffered by an 8-year-old boy killed in the 2013 terror attack.
Three jurors wiped tears from their eyes as they looked at photos of the boy, Richard Martin, who had gone to the Boston Marathon with his parents and was killed when one of two homemade pressure-cooker bombs exploded near him.
Massachusetts’ chief medical examiner, Henry Nields, testified that Richard had received injuries to nearly every part of his body, including to his liver, kidney and spleen, and third-degree burns.
The boy’s bloody clothing also was displayed, the AP said.
Nields, the 92nd witness called by prosecutors over 19 days, said he removed small nails, metal pellets, fragments of wood and black plastic from the Richard’s injuries.
After the completion of the prosecutors’ case on Monday, Tsarnaev’s lawyers began their defense of the southern Russia immigrant who was attending college in the Boston area at the time of the bombing.
Tsarnaev and his brother are believed to have planned the attack as retribution for the U.S. military’s wars in Muslim countries, the AP said.
Tsarnaev also is accused of murder in the slaying of MIT police officer Sean Collier three days after the marathon bombing, the AP said.
If Tsarnaev is convicted of any charges that could be punished with the death penalty, the same jurors will begin a penalty phase of the trial in which they will choose between lethal injection or life in prison without parole.
