Boston Marathon Bombing Trial: Death Penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Possible

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the convicted Boston Marathon bomber, could face the death penalty as the same jurors who found him guilty are deliberating whether the 21-year-old should live or die.

According to USA Today, the Boston Marathon bombing to which Dzhokhar's older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was the co-conspirator killed three people and injured more than 250 people last April 15, 2013. Older brother Tamerlan died after Dzhokhar ran him over with an SUV vehicle when the police pursued the latter.

For the dozen jurors who are to decide the defendant's fate, the death penalty or life imprisonment, Judge George O'Toole said via The Guardian, "The choice between those two alternatives is yours and yours alone to make." O'Toole listed mitigating factors for the jurors to reconsider when making the decision. These include Tsarnaev's age, 19, at the time of the bombing and his older brother's influence on him.

Should Dzhokhar get the death penalty, he will be sent to Terra Haute, Indiana's federal penitentiary to receive his sentence by lethal injection. If he were to receive a life sentence, CNN reports that he will be sent to the United States Penitentiary Administrative-Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado. ADX is considered to be the country's most secure super maximum security prison and is where the worst convicts are sent.

Prosecuting Attorney Steve Mellin cited Tsarnaev's lack of remorse as he dropped off the backpack containing the bomb within a few feet of the spectators which included children.

"He didn't care if he killed them along with everyone else," Mellin said. "Killing innocents was the whole point. It's how you terrorize an entire population."

He also cited the victims of the bombing including Krystle Campbell, 29, who died just a few moments after the bombing and of Martin Richard, 8, and the grief it brought to their respective families.

"There is no just punishment for that other than death," Mellin added. "The defense will ask you to value the defendant's life, but he did not value the life of his victims."

On the defense side, attorney Judy Clarke pitched her closing statement.

"We're asking you to choose life. Yes, even for the Boston Marathon bomber," she said via The Guardian. "You might say, how can I do that? How can I ask you to choose life after all the pain he's caused? If this crime doesn't require the death penalty, what crime does? Why should he have the opportunity to live when he didn't give it to others? Why shouldn't he suffer as his victim did?" she asked.

"All of those thoughts are completely understandable," she added. "They are driven by anger, disgust, fear, pain. Some sound like they are based in vengeance."

She refers to the life sentence as an assurance that the younger Tsarnaev will be locked away at prison where the people will hear the last of him.

"His name will fade from headlines, from the front page, from the inside page, it will fade from the news altogether and those who so desperately no longer want to be reminded of him won't be," Clarke concluded.