WASHINGTON, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – A majority of Bostonians want suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to be jailed for life instead of being put to death if convicted of the deadly attacks near the marathon finish line in April, a poll published Monday showed.
Nearly six in 10 adult Bostonians – 57 percent -- said they favor a life sentence without parole for Tsarnaev, while just 33 percent said they want the 20-year-old to be put to death if he is found guilty of helping to carry out the attacks, in which three people were killed and more than 260 wounded, the poll conducted for the Boston Globe newspaper found.
Capital punishment is barred in Massachusetts, but Tsarnaev has been indicted on federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction, which could carry the death penalty on conviction.
US Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to seek the death penalty in the case.
Federal investigators allege that Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan detonated two pressure cookers packed with explosives near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15.
Prosecutors say the two brothers also killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police officer several days later, before engaging in a gun battle with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown, in which Tamerlan was killed.
Dzhokhar escaped and hid in a boat before being taken into custody on April 19. At his arraignment in July, he pleaded not guilty to all 30 charges against him, including murder and use of a weapon of mass destruction.
The University of New Hampshire Survey Center conducted the poll for the Globe, surveying 704 adult residents of the Boston area by phone between Sept. 5 – 12.