Defense lawyers for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev began making their case to spare his life in a Boston court on April 27.
The jury must decide whether Tsarnaev, 21, should be given the death penalty, as prosecutors demand, or spend the rest of his life in prison, a sentence his defense lawyers want the jury to impose.
Defense attorney David Bruck told jurors that Dzhokhar’s older brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a gunfight with police days after the April 2013 attack, was "consumed by jihad" and had led his younger brother astray.
Bruck said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was "a good kid" and that the attack would not have happened if Tamerlan had not led the way.
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when two bombs exploded at the finish of the marathon on April 15, 2013.
Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He and his brother had roots in Russia's North Caucasus region and spent part of their childhood in Kyrgyzstan.
