Boston Bombing Victim Adrianne Haslet 'Livid' After Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Death Penalty Overturned
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet made it very clear that she was upset when [...]
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet made it very clear that she was upset when Dzkhokhar Tsarnaev won his death penalty appeal this week. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reconsider Tsarnaev's sentence on Friday, according to a report by The Associated Press, meaning he may endure life in prison as opposed to execution. Haslet was not pleased.
Haslet posted a photo on Instagram on Friday, showing Tsarnaev giving the middle finger to a prison security camera side-by-side with herself giving the finger to a glass door — presumably the prison or the court. With it, she included a long note in the caption about how she felt about this appeal. Haslet noted that she generally believes the criminal justice system in the U.S. needs reform, but in the case of Tsarnaev, she believes the death penalty is the only logical sentence.
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"I'm so livid at today's ruling by the federal court," Haslet wrote. "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 rehashed the severity of Tsarnaev's crime, reiterating that it was not just murder but a terrorist attack. She also reminded her followers of Tsarnaev's testimony about his plans to commit other terrorist attacks. To Haslet, it was not her personal loss that made Tsarnaev irredeemable but his philosophy of hatred towards the country as a whole.
"That is why I stood by the death penalty in this particular case," Haslet wrote. "He is a threat to all of us and he needs to die. I cannot imagine the comments I'm about to get for speaking my mind, but these have been my thoughts since I testified. I'm not a woman with a grudge, I'm a human with a brain."
Haslet finished by noting that she is "ready to testify again" if she needs to. Haslet was a professional dancer in 2013 when Tsarnaev and his brother set off a makeshift bomb at the finish line of the Boston marathon. Haslet's left leg was so badly injured that it needed to be amputated.
In the years that followed, Haslet's rehabilitation was one of the most inspiring stories associated with the Boston Marathon bombing. In 2016, she returned with a prosthetic to complete the marathon on her own terms.