Parents of young Boston victim call for Tsarnaev to be spared death
Bill and Denise Richard say they want the Boston Marathon bomber out of the public spotlight so they can move on with their lives.
The parents of the youngest victims of the Boston Marathon bombing have ask the United States Justice Department not to pursue the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Bill and Denise Richard were fixtures at Tsarnaev's trial, which ended April 8 with the 21-year-old being convicted on all 30 counts, 17 of which were capital offenses.
The Richards' eight-year-old son Martin was one of three people killed in the bombings and their seven-year-old daughter Jane lost her left leg in the attacks. Denise Richard was left blind in one eye.
But the Richards wrote in a letter to the Boston Globe saying they would prefer life in prison for Tsarnaev as long as he will never be released and waives his right to appeal.
Their letter reads in part:
"We understand all too well the heinousness and brutality of the crimes committed. We were there. We lived it.
"The defendant murdered our 8-year-old son, maimed our 7-year-old daughter, and stole part of our soul. We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives. We hope our two remaining children do not have to grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them, which years of appeals would undoubtedly bring.
"For us, the story of Marathon Monday 2013 should not be defined by the actions or beliefs of the defendant, but by the resiliency of the human spirit and the rallying cries of this great city. We can never replace what was taken from us, but we can continue to get up every morning and fight another day. As long as the defendant is in the spotlight, we have no choice but to live a story told on his terms, not ours. The minute the defendant fades from our newspapers and TV screens is the minute we begin the process of rebuilding our lives and our family."
The sentencing phase of Tsarnaev's trial begins next week and could take up to a month to conclude, with two outcomes possible: life in prison without parole or death.
