New England is holding its collective breath, as the Boston region tensely awaits not one but two huge – though very different – trial verdicts.
By the waterfront, at a federal courthouse, the jury in the terrorism trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of two brothers accused of perpetrating the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, entered its second day of deliberations on Wednesday.
Tsarnaev’s fate rests entirely in the jury’s hands. If he is found guilty on any of the capital counts, the same jury will then hear evidence in the so-called sentencing phase, at the end of which these seven women and five men will decide whether to send the younger Tsarnaev to death.
At the same time, less than an hour south of the city in Fall River, Massachusetts, at the Bristol County superior court, the fate of former star New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez also now rests in the hands of a jury, which began its first full day of deliberations Wednesday in his murder trial.
Hernandez is charged with the June 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd, who was dating his fiancee’s sister. Lloyd was shot six times in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez’s home. At the time, the NFL all-pro had a $40m contract with the Patriots.
Twelve jurors returned to deliberate Wednesday after getting the Hernandez case Tuesday afternoon. The now-retired athlete was briefly brought into court during the morning proceeding at the Fall River Justice Center. He is being held in a cell at the courthouse to await word on a verdict.
Later, he returned to court briefly a few times while lawyers and the judge discussed several issues, including hashing out disagreements over certain exhibits before they were given to jurors.
The judge overruled the defense’s request to block a picture of the redacted final text messages Lloyd sent to his sister. In the messages, Lloyd tells his sister he is with “NFL”. He was dead within minutes of sending his final message.
Previously, the judge in the Hernandez case said the jury would not be allowed to see the content of the texts, but she did allow the timestamps. Jurors were then given the 439 exhibits and a verdict slip.
Deliberations in both trials began at around 9am and could go well past business hours if the jurors wish.
The Hernandez jury must come to a unanimous decision, and are considering three charges: murder, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition. The murder charge carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is found guilty of first-degree murder, or life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years if he is found guilty of second-degree murder.
His lawyer acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that Hernandez was there when Lloyd was killed. But he described him as a 23-year-old kid who did not know what to do. He pinned the killing on two of Hernandez’s friends, co-defendants Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz.
Both men have pleaded not guilty and will be tried later. Prosecutors say Hernandez planned the crime, drove Lloyd to a secluded area, killed him and then tried to cover it up.
The jurors in the Tsarnaev case must also come to a unanimous decision, and have a much more complicated charge-sheet to come to grips with. Tsarnaev faces no fewer than 30 counts pertaining to the 2013 bomb attack, 17 of which carry a potential death sentence.
Tsarnaev, 21, is charged with conspiring with his now-dead brother, Tamerlan, to perpetrate the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 marathon, which left three dead and more than 260 injured.
Three of the charges accuse him of conspiring with his brother to use a weapon of mass destruction, to bomb a place of public use and to maliciously destroy property by means of an explosive. Within those conspiracy counts, he is charged in the deaths of the three people killed in the bombing as well as an MIT police officer killed days later as the brothers tried to flee.
On Wednesday morning, Judge George O’Toole tried to clear up some confusion about legal concepts at the heart of the Tsarnaev case, answering two questions the jury sent to him in writing late Tuesday afternoon.
In its first question, the jury asked if a conspiracy pertains to a sequence of events or if it relates to a distinct event; in the second, they asked if there was a difference between “aiding” and “abetting”.
“Aiding and abetting is a single concept,” O’Toole told them.
The judge told jurors that the duration of a conspiracy is a question of fact they must determine.
Prosecutors allege that the conspiracy between the Tsarnaev brothers began in February 2013 – two months before the marathon bombings – and continued through 19 April 2013, when Dzhokhar was captured.
They say the conspiracy covered the bombings, Officer Sean Collier’s death and a firefight the Tsarnaevs had with police in Watertown. Tamerlan was killed during the gun battle.
Jurors also asked if they had to decide whether the conspiracy resulted in all four killings and whether they had to be unanimous on each killing. The judge told jurors they had to make unanimous findings on all four.
Tsarnaev’s lawyers have admitted he participated in the attack but say Tamerlan, 26, was the mastermind.
