Public verdict split on death sentence

The death sentence hung over convicted Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s head Friday unleashed strong opinions and emotions from local residents, clergy and attorneys, including some who wondered what they would have done if they sat in judgment on Tsarnaev.”America spoke today,” said Jordan Avery of Lynn, who was among the first responders on April 15, 2013, when Tsarnaev and his late brother, Tamerlan, exploded two bombs at the finish line of the marathon.”I am thrilled with the verdict,” Avery said. “I hope that it helps the recovery process, or the healing process, for all the victims and first responders that day. This is what I had been waiting for. I can’t thank the prosecution, and federal and state officials, enough.”Lynn Attorney Judith A. Wayne also agreed with the decision to put Tsarnaev to death.”This was a case that screamed for the death penalty,” she said. “But I did not believe a Boston jury would give it to him.However, she cautions, “he will remain alive between 12 and 15 years while he exhausts all appeals – at the taxpayers’ expense.”On the other hand, Jeff Scott, a member of the East Baptist Church in Lynn, said he cannot support the decision.”I am personally not a supporter of the death penalty,” Scott said. “I can understand why they came to that decision, but I don’t support it. They should eliminate the death penalty completely. There has never been a case where I believed someone deserved the death penalty.”Reaction followed similar lines Friday as people struggled to put it in perspective.Sabrina Acevedo said she would have voted for the death penalty had she sat on the jury, saying Tsarnaev would have “won” if he had been sentenced to life in prison.”He has really no care for what he put those families through,” she said.But Lynn veteran Gary Faulkner said he is not sure how he would have voted.”The crime is horrendous, but with so many Catholics in the state, I thought he would get life,” Faulkner said, adding that he wrestles morally with the logic of “you kill someone, we will kill you.”Do two wrongs make a right?” he asked. “It’s a gut-wrenching decision,” he said.Ruthi Wurth said Tsarnaev, if sentenced to life in prison, could have become a future terrorist bargaining chip for any organization intent on kidnapping Americans and threatening their deaths unless Tsarnaev was released. And Alexander Cintron said he feels death is “appropriate.”A lot of people have been hurt. If he’s in jail, it’s not fair to people who lost people,” he said.An Army National Guardsman for fours years, Cintron graduated from Lynn Vocational Technical Institute in 2011.Acevedo said emotions swirled around Tsarnaev’s trial and she said friends who ran in the 2013 marathon “felt they wouldn’t completely heal until they knew he was sentenced.”On the other side, Natasha Mcfadden of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church said, “I don’t believe in the death penalty.”Mcfadden grew up in the church but made it clear that her opinion was personal and not based on religion. Although she considers herself committed to her faith, “this is not about religion, it’s personal.”She would rather Tsarnaev spend the rest of his life in prison.”God wouldn’t want him to get the death penalty, he has already been forgiven by the Lord,” she said.Several other attorneys interviewed Friday said they differed in personal beliefs on the death penalty, but were not surprised with the jury’s conclusion.”I think it’s the right decision,” said Attorney and Public Defender Todd Seigel. He said he personally is in favor of the death penalty – but only in cases rising to the level of “such a heinous crime (as the Marathon bombings), and where the evidence is overwhelming.” But he predicted it would be a long time before Tsarnaev was executed.”I don’t believe the federal government executed someone in a long time,” Seigel said. “So even though he got the death penalty, the trial is going to be appealed, and you’re talking years before he gets executed.”Chel