Boston, Mass., May 11, 2015 / 15:26 pm
In the defense's final move to save the life of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Sister Helen Prejean asked the jury not to execute the young man.
The man responsible for the Boston bombings is "genuinely sorry for what he did," testified Sr. Prejean on May 11 before a federal jury. "He said it emphatically. He said no one deserves to suffer like they did," she recounted of Tsarnaev.
"I had every reason to think that he was taking it in and that he was genuinely sorry for what he did."
Sr. Prejean was the last of 44 witnesses heard in the sentencing trial for Tsarnaev after he was found guilty of all 30 charges he faced for participating in the bombings at the April 2013 Boston Marathon.
The attacks, which he conducted with his elder brother Tamerlan, killed three people and injured more than 260. Tamerlan died in a shootout with police days after the bombings.
Instead of facing execution, Tsarnaev's defense is asking that the young adult, receive life in prison without parole as a punishment for his actions.
Sr. Prejean, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph since 1957, has been a longtime advocate against the death penalty following her ministry to prisoners on death row. Her life and ministry was portrayed in the 1993 Academy Award-winning film "Dead Man Walking."
She began meeting with Tsarnaev in March at the request of his defense team, and continued to meet with him, last seeing him only days before the testimony.
Challenging the prosecution's narrative that Tsarnaev has no remorse, Prejean told the jury that the young man "kind of lowered his eyes" when speaking about victims and his "face registered" what he said about them.
She testified that indeed Tsarnaev felt remorse for his actions and that in her opinion this regret was "absolutely sincere."
"It had pain in it, actually," she said of his face, when his actions were brought up. "When he said what he did, I knew, I felt it."
Sr. Prejean also said she was moved and concerned by the defendant's age; he was 19 at the time of the bombings. "I walked in the room, I looked at his face and said, 'Oh my God, he's so young!'" she said of their first meeting.
The religious sister also revealed that she and Tsarnaev had discussed their religions, saying that she "talked about how in the Catholic Church we have become more and more opposed to the death penalty," and that he was "very open and receptive" during these talks.