# Boston Bomber guilty on all 30 counts **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164 "2015-04-08T22:28:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/41 "2015-04-10T02:16:35Z")
> [@get\_lives](#): > > Jail is about protecting the public from criminals (and in the case of some crimes, protecting criminals from the public). Reprisal is an inefficient method of producing good social outcomes. I didn’t say jail wasn’t about protecting the public, I said it was another form of reprisal which **ElvisL1ves** said we shouldn’t do. My Merriam-Webster says reprisal is “Something done to hurt or punish someone who has hurt you or done something bad to you.” I think jail qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/42 "2015-04-10T04:48:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Capital punishment puts helpless persons to death. > > War is generally fought against entities that are capable of making war right back. > > The two are remarkably different. Far far more helpless people are killed in war than are killed by capital punishment. I would argue that they’re not helpless people either. Plus, that’s besides the point because the argument is almost always framed as killing is wrong. This is the first time I’ve ever heard someone say it’s because they’re “helpless.” ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/43 "2015-04-10T04:57:30Z")
I’m against the DP… most of the time. This is one of those exceptions. This kid knowingly placed a bomb behind a little kid who was blown to bits/dismembered upon explosion. Arguing he went quick doesn’t help. Especially with other deaths that weren’t so quick. (Young grad student who bled to death comes to mind) His defense pulled at straws to say it was all his brother, but Little brother had PLENTY of chances to say no, and/or stop his older brother, and/or report it to authorities before it happened. On top of all that, I heard the kid is basically like, “Whatever, dude,” and hasn’t said he’s sorry or shown remorse. Put it together, he’s a psychopath, and death penalty is fine with me. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/44 "2015-04-10T05:39:28Z")
The people of the state of Massachusetts have decided that the death penalty is not an appropriate punishment for any crime. That should end any debate about it right there. If the feds had any respect for the state, they would not seek the death penalty on that fact alone. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/45 "2015-04-10T06:55:59Z")
I hope he gets fucking shanked in prison by a gay athlete. No final meal, no time to pray, no mercy. Fuck him, the pain he inflicted on others he should be given with the same. He is the scourge that humanity sometimes deals us with - it isn’t beyond our morals to say ‘An eye for an eye’ when dealing with murdering scum like that. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/46 "2015-04-10T07:23:39Z")
I think people who do things like this, whose guilt is beyond question should have all their appeals and such processed on an accelerated basis and executed ASAP, as opposed to twenty or ten years after conviction. That said even if he gets life I like to imagine a frail little pretty boy like him will get a lot of unwanted male attention, but I’m not sure if that happens in the federal system and he’ll likely be segregated from general population for his own protection. Either way I can’t imagine anything worse than life in prison the day-in day-out monotony watching life pass you by and imagining how your life could have been, he’s got a shitty, depressing life ahead of him and he deserves every bit of it. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/47 "2015-04-10T08:30:38Z")
I don’t _want_ him or anybody else to be sentenced to death, but it would be crazy if he got anything else. This is the type of case the death penalty is there for, and if he gets off it proves every criticism about the unevenness and unfairness of capital punishment. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/48 "2015-04-10T10:09:52Z")
> [@buddy431](#): > > The people of the state of Massachusetts have decided that the death penalty is not an appropriate punishment for any crime. That should end any debate about it right there. If the feds had any respect for the state, they would not seek the death penalty on that fact alone. That’s not the way federal laws–and federal courts–work. They work, just like the state courts do, on the basis of the pertinent laws in their jurisdiction. The pertinent laws for the federal courts are, unsurprisingly, the federal laws. It so happens that the federal government has capital punishment and, thus, for crimes that qualify for such, the accused criminal may face such punishment. Another nifty note is that when a crime may be charged in different jurisdictions, it’s not unheard of for the prosecutors for all the jurisdictions to get together and determine which jurisdiction has the most severe punishment and then the accused is charged in that jurisdiction. Note that I, personally, am against capital punishment in all cases. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/49 "2015-04-10T10:23:50Z")
Hang him. Cremate him. Throw the ashes into the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/50 "2015-04-10T11:43:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > [URL= I really hope that he is sentenced to life without parole. Life without parole is like the unicorn. A pleasant thought, but it does not exist. Any future moon bat judge or politician can let the guy out. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/51 "2015-04-10T13:13:35Z")
But in the meanwhile he doesn’t get an automatic hearing every two or three years. The survivors don’t have to be brought back to that day periodically. When does the situation you describe ever arise? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/52 "2015-04-10T13:48:01Z")
I did my Happy Dance when I heard the guilty verdict, and I will do it again if he gets the death penalty. Some people do not deserve to be alive. What this coward did was reprehensible. Like Timothy McVeigh, he set the bomb and walked away. Sure, let other people be maimed and killed, but I’m still here. That’s like extending your middle finger. Hang him high. And slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/53 "2015-04-10T16:31:07Z")
I’ve never bought the “killing him will just make him a martyr” argument. He wants to be a martyr? Fine. I _want_ our enemies to declare that they’re fighting in the name of a cowardly mass murderer. Let the world know that this man is your ideal. How long has it been since they had a hanging in Boston Common? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/54 "2015-04-10T16:37:48Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > But in the meanwhile he doesn’t get an automatic hearing every two or three years. The survivors don’t have to be brought back to that day periodically. > > When does the situation you describe ever arise? I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure that with life without parole in the federal system does not involve any parole hearings, or similar procedures. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/55 "2015-04-10T17:14:09Z")
Right, that’s why “without parole” really does stiffen the penalty. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164/56 "2015-04-10T22:47:21Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > That’s not the way federal laws–and federal courts–work. They work, just like the state courts do, on the basis of the pertinent laws in their jurisdiction. The pertinent laws for the federal courts are, unsurprisingly, the federal laws. It so happens that the federal government has capital punishment and, thus, for crimes that qualify for such, the accused criminal may face such punishment. Another nifty note is that when a crime may be charged in different jurisdictions, it’s not unheard of for the prosecutors for all the jurisdictions to get together and determine which jurisdiction has the most severe punishment and then the accused is charged in that jurisdiction. > > Note that I, personally, am against capital punishment in all cases. Historically, the feds have usually not sought the death penalty for crimes that occurred in non-death penalty states. In my opinion, that’s the proper attitude. The crime occurred in Massachusetts, Massachusetts has decided that the death penalty isn’t appropriate, I think the feds should respect that. I would be more receptive to your argument if he had done something that was more directly related to the federal government. If he had blown up a federal building or shot a federal worker or something. But he didn’t. At the end of the day, this was a Massachusetts resident who killed some people in Massachusetts. If he had done so with a knife or a gun there would be no question how this would play out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boston-bomber-guilty-on-all-30-counts/717164.md?page=2)