Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all charges Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a federal jury that now must decide whether the 21-year-old former college student should be executed.

Tsarnaev folded his arms, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table as he listened to one guilty verdict after another on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts are punishable by death.

The jury took a day and a half to reach its verdict, which was practically a foregone conclusion, given his lawyer's startling admission during opening statements that Tsarnaev carried out the attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.

The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 other people, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days.

Tsarnaev was found responsible not only for those deaths but for that of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was shot days later during the brothers' getaway attempt.

In the trial's next phase, which could begin as early as Monday, the jury will hear evidence on whether Tsarnaev should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

In a bid to save Tsarnaev from a death sentence, defense attorney Judy Clarke has argued that Tsarnaev, then 19, fell under the influence of his radicalized brother. Tamerlan, 26, died when he was shot by police and run over by his brother during a chaotic getaway attempt days after the bombing.

"If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened," Clarke told the jury during closing arguments.

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the brothers - ethnic Chechens who moved to the U.S. from Russia more than a decade ago - as full partners in a plan to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries. Jihadist writings, lectures and videos were found on both their computers, though the defense argued that Tamerlan downloaded the material and sent it to his brother.

The government called 92 witnesses over 15 days, painting a hellish scene of torn-off limbs, blood-spattered pavement, ghastly screams and the smell of sulfur and burned hair. Survivors gave heartbreaking testimony about losing legs in the blasts or watching people die. The father of an 8-year-old boy described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally wounded son so he could get help for their 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had been blown off.

Killed were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student at Boston University; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager; and Martin Richard, the 8-year-old. MIT police Officer Sean Collier was shot to death at close range days later.

Some of the most damning evidence included video showing Tsarnaev planting a backpack containing one of the bombs near where the 8-year-old was standing, and incriminating statements scrawled inside the dry-docked boat where a wounded and bleeding Tsarnaev was captured days after the tragedy.

"Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop," he wrote.

Tsarnaev's lawyers barely cross-examined the government's witnesses and called just four people to the stand over less than two days, all in an effort to portray the older brother as the guiding force in the plot.

Witnesses testified about phone records that showed Dzhokhar was at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth while his brother was buying bomb components, including pressure cookers and BBs. A forensics expert said Tamerlan's computer showed search terms such as "detonator," "transmitter and receiver," while Dzhokhar was largely spending time on Facebook and other social media sites.

Also, an FBI investigator said Tamerlan's fingerprints - but not Dzhokhar's - were found on pieces of the two bombs.

Clarke is one of the nation's foremost death-penalty specialists and has kept other high-profile defendants off death row. She saved the lives of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her two children in a lake in 1994.

Tsarnaev's lawyers tried repeatedly to get the trial moved out of Boston because of the heavy publicity and the widespread trauma. But opposition to capital punishment is strong in Massachusetts, which abolished its state death penalty in 1984, and some polls have suggested a majority of Bostonians do not want to see Tsarnaev sentenced to die.

 

Summary of counts against Tsarnaev

The jury convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on all 30 federal counts against him. Here are the charges:

  • 1 count: Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death
  • 2 counts: Use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  • 9 counts: Possession and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  • 1 count: Conspiracy to bomb a place of public use resulting in death
  • 2 counts: Bombing of a place of public use resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  • 1 count: Conspiracy to maliciously destroy property resulting in personal injury and death
  • 2 counts: Malicious destruction of property resulting in personal injury and death; aiding and abetting
  • 1 count: Carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury; aiding and abetting
  • 6 counts: Possession and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting
  • 1 count: Interference with commerce by threats and violence; aiding and abetting
  • 4 counts: Use of a weapon of mass destruction; aiding and abetting

 

A look at the jury

  • Juror No. 35: male, works for the Massachusetts Department of Energy.
  • Juror No. 41: female, works as an executive assistant for EMC Corp. in Hopkinton.
  • Juror No. 83: male, student, psychology major who has put his education on hold due to financial reasons.
  • Juror No. 102: female, former registered nurse, now works as a cake artist.
  • Juror No. 138: male, works for Peabody Water Department.
  • Juror No. 229: female, former social worker, now works as an event planner, volunteer for domestic violence hotline.
  • Juror No. 286: female, works as a restaurant manager.
  • Juror No. 349: female, works in clothing product development.
  • Juror No. 395: female, executive assistant at a law firm.
  • Juror No. 441: male, unemployed auditor.
  • Juror No. 480: male, telecommunications engineer for Partners Healthcare.
  • Juror No. 87, female, single mother of four children, works for local school system.

During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence they hope will save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia.

Prosecutors will present so-called aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, including the killing of a child and the targeting of the marathon because of the potential for maximum bloodshed.

 

Timeline of events

March 2011: Russian FSB intelligence security service gives FBI information that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a follower of radical Islam.

June 2011: FBI closes investigation after finding nothing to link Tamerlan Tsarnaev to terrorism.

Sept. 12, 2011: Bodies of three men are found in Waltham, Massachusetts, with their throats slit and marijuana sprinkled over them.

Late 2011: U.S. officials add the Tsarnaevs' mother to a federal terrorism database after Russia contacts CIA with concerns they were religious militants about to travel to Russia. She later says she has no links to terrorism.

January 2012: Tamerlan arrives in Russia, where he spends time in two predominantly Muslim provinces, Dagestan and Chechnya.

July 2012: Officials in Dagestan say Tamerlan applies for a new passport but never picks it up. Russian officials say they have him under surveillance but lose track of him after the death of a Canadian man who had joined an Islamic insurgency in the region.

July 17, 2012: Tamerlan returns to U.S.

November 2012: Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Cambridge says Tamerlan has an outburst that interrupts a sermon about it being acceptable for Muslims to celebrate American holidays.

January 2013: Islamic Society says Tamerlan has a second outburst after a sermon that includes praise for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

April 15, 2013: Bombs go off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

April 16, 2013: Federal agents say the bombs were made from pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and other shrapnel, but they still don't know who detonated them or why.

April 17, 2013: President Barack Obama signs emergency declaration for Massachusetts and orders federal aid to supplement local response.

April 18, 2013: Investigators release photos and video of two suspects and ask for public's help identifying them. Later that night, Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier is shot to death in his cruiser by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. They steal an SUV at gunpoint from a Cambridge gas station. The driver is held for about a half-hour, then released unharmed.

April 19, 2013: Tsarnaevs have an early morning gunbattle with authorities who have tracked them to Watertown. Tamerlan, who is run over by his younger brother, dies. Dzhokhar escapes, and at around 6 a.m., authorities tell residents of Boston and surrounding communities to stay indoors. All mass transit is shut down. That order is lifted around 6:30 p.m., just before authorities trace Dzhokhar to a Watertown backyard, where he is found hiding in a boat and taken into custody.

April 22, 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, injured in the shootout, is charged in his hospital room with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

April 30, 2013: Two friends of Dzhokhar's are charged with attempting to destroy evidence by disposing of a backpack and laptop computer taken from his room after they found he was a suspect in the bombing. Another is charged with lying to investigators.

May 9, 2013: Tamerlan Tsarnaev is secretly buried in Virginia after a weeklong search for a cemetery willing to take the body.

May 22, 2013: An FBI agent in Orlando, Florida, fatally shoots Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Tamerlan's, after he lunges at law enforcement officials questioning him about the Waltham killings. Officials say that before he died, he had agreed to give a statement about his involvement.

July 10, 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleads not guilty to 30 federal charges.

July 23, 2013: Marc Fucarile is the last survivor of the bombings to leave the hospital.

Jan. 30, 2014: Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar.

April 15, 2014: Ceremonies and events mark the anniversary of the attacks.

April 21, 2014: The 2014 Boston Marathon features a field of 36,000 runners, 9,000 more than 2013 and the second-biggest field in history.

May 30, 2014: Khairullozhon Matanov, 23, of Quincy, is arrested on charges of obstructing the investigation by deleting information from his computer and lying to investigators.

June 18, 2014: Tsarnaev's lawyers file first of several requests to move the trial to Washington, D.C.

July 21, 2014: Azamat Tazhayakov, a college friend of Dzhokhar's, is convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy for agreeing with another friend to get rid of a backpack and disabled fireworks they took from his dorm room three days after the attack.

July 22, 2014: Stephen Silva, believed to have provided the gun used by the Tsarnaevs to kill Collier, is arrested on drug and weapons charges.

Aug. 22, 2014: Dias Kadyrbayev, 20, pleads guilty to impeding the investigation by removing incriminating evidence from Dzhokhar's dorm room.

Sept. 24, 2014: Judge grants delay and pushes start of trial to Jan. 5, 2015.

Oct. 28, 2014: Robel Phillipos, 21, of Cambridge, is convicted of lying to federal agents about being in Dzhokhar's room.

Nov. 25, 2014: Federal judge rejects a request from lawyers for Tsarnaev to order prosecutors to turn over evidence about his older brother's possible participation in the Waltham slayings.

Dec. 18, 2014: Tsarnaev appears in court for first time since his July 2013 arraignment.

Jan. 5, 2015: Jury selection begins in Tsarnaev's trial.

March 4, 2015: Tsarnaev's lead defense attorney, Judy Clarke, declares in opening statements: "It was him."

April 6, 2015: Prosecutors and defense present closing statements.

April 7, 2015: Jury begins deliberating verdicts.

April 8, 2015: Jury convicts Tsarnaev; will weigh possible death sentence in forthcoming penalty phase of trial.