A small group of people who survived the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing gathered outside the federal courthouse on Wednesday, moments after they saw a jury convict Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on 30 counts relating to the bombing.
In the driving wind and flurries of snow, Karen Brassard – who was wounded along with her husband and daughter in the 2013 attack which left three dead and more than 260 injured – stood and told the assembled reporters that her fellow survivors were “grateful” for the outcome.
She stood with Liz Norden, whose two sons each lost a leg in the bombing at the marathon finish line.
“It’s not a happy occasion,” Brassard said, “but we’re glad to put it behind us.” She said that it had been a difficult process, but the survivors had gotten through it together.
She said Tsarnaev, who remained passive on Wednesday as the verdict was read out, had been “arrogant” throughout the trial. She was usually a passive person, she said, but when she first saw him at the arraignment, she said she was “surprised how angry I was”.
She said she didn’t believe Tsarnaev felt any remorse. “I think he was all in.”
The next phase of the trial will be the sentencing phase, in which the jury will hear evidence to decide whether to put Tsarnaev to death. Brassard demurred when asked if execution would mean justice, however. “I don’t know what justice is,” she said.
But she said she was “grateful the right outcome happened”.
She said that there might be little closure for the survivors. “It’s not something that will ever be over,” she said, though she added that she didn’t want to stay angry. “I want to put it behind me.”
In a statement on Facebook, Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in the bombing, said: “Today’s verdict will never replace the lives that were lost and so dramatically changed, but it is a relief, and one step closer to closure.”
