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Prosecution Rests In Case Against Admitted Boston Marathon Bomber

In this March 5, 2015 file courtroom sketch, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, center, is depicted between defense attorneys Miriam Conrad, left, and Judy Clarke, right, during his federal death penalty trial in Boston.
Jane Flavell Collins
/
AP
In this March 5, 2015 file courtroom sketch, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, center, is depicted between defense attorneys Miriam Conrad, left, and Judy Clarke, right, during his federal death penalty trial in Boston.

After presenting emotional testimony about the the physical damage one of the bombs inflicted on 8-year-old Martin Richard, the prosecution rested in its case against admitted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

NPR's Tovia Smith is inside the court room and she's been Tweeting about the trial. She reports:

After that testimony, Tsarnaev's defense attorneys did not have any questions, so the prosecution rested its case.

The AP reports:

"Now that prosecutors have finished their case, Tsarnaev's lawyers are presenting theirs. The defense has made it clear since testimony began March 4 that its strategy during the two-phase trial is not to win an acquittal for Tsarnaev but to save him from the death penalty. ...

"The first witness called by the defense Monday was Michelle Gamble, a field photographer for the FBI who testified at the behest of prosecutors earlier in the day. Gamble had been asked by prosecutors to identify the photo that showed Dzhokhar Tsaarnaev standing just feet behind Martin, his younger sister, the rest of the Richards family and other children.

"The defense case is expected to be relatively short. Once that is complete, jurors will deliberate on whether Tsarnaev is guilty of the 30 federal charges against him in the bombing, in Collier's killing and for his role in a violent confrontation with police in Watertown. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during the confrontation, both by gunshots and from being run over by Dzhokhar as he escaped. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found more than 18 hours later hiding in a boat parked in a Watertown yard."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.