Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Death Penalty Overturned, and the Public Is Divided

Survivors, witnesses and the general public are all split after the man behind the Boston Marathon bombing, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, won his appeal against the death penalty. Tsarnaev was sentenced to die for his role in the 2013 terrorist attack, but on Friday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reconsider this sentence, according to a report by The Associated Press. Now commentators seem to be evenly split over whether this was the right decision.

A panel of three judges determined Tsarnaev’s initial trial did have issues with potential juror biases, and he may have received the death sentence in error. They ordered his appeal to go on to a new-penalty phase, determining how Tsarnaev will repay his debt to society. In the ruling, the judges wrote: “But make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution.”

Still, upon seeing the story circulating on social media, many took this to mean that Tsarnaev had been spared the death penalty for sure, and they had mixed feelings about it. Some questioned whether or not the state had the right to execute criminals, while others argued that it had a responsibility to do so.

Many of the commenters also pointed out their connections to the Boston Marathon bombing — whatever they happened to be. Some were witnesses, others lived nearby, and some had even known loved ones to be injured or killed in the attack.

A survivor of the attack, Adrianne Haslet, was one of the loudest in the outcry over Tsarnaev’s successful appeal. Haslet was a professional dancer when she ran the 2013 Boston Marathon, and the attack injured her so severely that her left leg had to be removed from the knee down. She made a triumphant recovery — even completing the marathon on a prosthetic leg in 2016 — and she does not believe Tsarnaev should be given any more chances.

“I’m so livid at today’s ruling by the federal court,” Haslet wrote on Instagram. “First and foremost, I cannot emphasize enough, without a shadow of a doubt, that the criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul to stop racial profiling, and the death penalty is used in far too many cases of injustice. AND. The death penalty should be used in this particular case.”

Haslet was not alone, but her feelings were not unanimous, either. Here is a look at how social media has reacted to Tsarnaev’s successful appeal.

How?

Change of Heart

Unusual Circumstances

Hard Line

Unpatriotic

Proximity

Alternatives