Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Wednesday apologised in court for the first time to his victims for the suffering he caused, moments before being formally sentenced to death by a federal judge.
The US citizen of Chechen descent was sentenced to death on six counts over the 2013 bombings, one of the worst assaults on US soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“I would like to now apologise to the victims and to the survivors,” said the 21-year-old former university student in his first public remarks since the April 15, 2013 bombings that killed three people.
“I am guilty,” he said, standing pale and thin in a dark blazer. “Let there be no doubt about that.”
Tsarnaev said he listened throughout the 12-week trial as he learnt about the victims from often harrowing testimony.
“I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering, the damage that I have done,” he said, beginning his remarks in the name of Allah and asking for God’s forgiveness.
“I pray to Allah to bestow his mercy upon the deceased,” he said. “I ask Allah to have mercy upon me, upon my brother, upon my family.”
Judge George O’Toole officially imposed the death sentence, which had been reached unanimously by the 12-person jury on May 15.
“I sentence you to the penalty of death by execution,” O’Toole told Tsarnaev, before he was led away by US Marshals.
