Marc Fucarile questions the sanity of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Marc Fucarile checked in with the Dennis & Callahan show on Monday morning to discuss the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sentencing. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.
Fucarile was on D&C on April 28 discussing the possibility of the death penalty for Tsarnaev, saying that it would be a tough decision for the jury to make. About 2 1/2 weeks later, the jury made it.
On Friday, Tsarnaev was given the death penalty for six of the 17 capital counts for which he was on trial. People understandably have conflicting opinions about the decision, but Fucarile said that the jurors had a choice to make, and based on how the United States justice system is formatted, they made the right one.
“A few people have made comments to me and I’ve discussed it with them, regarding the death penalty or life and one of the comments that stuck with me was what do you actually have to do in this country to get the death penalty,” he said. “So with that being said, I think they made the right decision. Unfortunately for myself and other survivors, this nightmare’s going to continue, unfortunately, with the appeals and all that, but I think it was the right decision. If you do A, B and C, it equals D, and that’s what you get.”
Some survivors had voiced their opinions against the death penalty prior to the sentencing stage, so when the punishment came down, people were happy “for the most part,” according to Fucarile. He said that it’s the kind of thing you have to let the jury do and trust that it makes the right decision.
“Everybody has their own opinion,” Fucarile said. “Like I said, there’s always been pros and cons regarding both options for [Tsarnaev], so I think we all kind of feel leave it in the jury’s decision. That’s their job, that’s our system and you have to put trust in our system. … There isn’t one system that’s perfect. I feel that they looked at the evidence and they made a choice and a decision that they had to make. I’m sure none of them wanted to make that decision, or be in a position to make that decision, but like I said, one plus one always equals two, so if you do this act and you do that act, this is the penalty for it, and I think that’s what we have to stand by in our country and put trust in that.”
Added Fucarile: “That jury, my heart goes out to them. They made a tough decision, and to deal with that, and they witnessed it too, just like I witnessed it, and that’s the thing about the marathon, anybody could relate to what this kid did, and it could have been anybody’s family.”
Knowing that Tsarnaev would either be getting life in prison or the death penalty, Fucarile said he wasn’t really all that surprised, that he “didn’t have any outrageous reaction to it” when the sentence was announced. Instead, he said it was more like “this part’s over, let’s get to the next part.”
“As more and more steps become complete, we get closer to moving on,” Fucarile said. “As far as I’m concerned, and some of the other survivors that are with me, we wake up every day with a reminder of it. We don’t need it to be in the headlines. … It’s a reminder constantly for us and us survivors, so it’s never like it’s over for us, but I did feel like this is one step closer to moving on with getting him out of the picture.”
During the trial, Fucarile agreed with the statement that the defense lawyers were disrespectful as they rubbed Tsarnaev’s back, smiled and laughed with him throughout the trial. Fucarile said it was unnecessary for them to do that, noting that they already conceded he was guilty but continued to console him. He made it very clear that defense lawyer Judy Clarke “irks” him in the way she went about the case.
“There’s definitely something to say for her and some of the other people that defend some of these people, and they actually feel passionate about it, and that’s what really surprising and shocking,” Fucarile said. “It’s disturbing, it is, it’s really disturbing. I mean, you’ve got to question the sanity of some people, and you can go on record saying I think she’s crazy, I think she is, I think she’s a lunatic and I’m not afraid to say it now that everything is said and done and I don’t have to worry about causing mistrials and all that. People can judge me for saying that all they want. She irks me. When I was on the stand, they looked over and smiled at me and I just gave them the death look, the stare, and they buried their heads in their chests pretty fast.”
As someone with a 7-year-old son, Fucarile said he’s already had to have conversations with him about his injuries and what took place in April 2013. The lesson Fucarile is trying to teach his son is that no matter what happens, you have to keep a positive attitude, because that way you can do anything, that it doesn’t matter if you’re different. He also said that with all of the support Fucarile has received, his son is seeing first hand people helping people, which is another important lesson.
“It’s just great for him to witness all this,” he said, adding: “He meets, like I said, on a daily basis, he meets five to 10 guys volunteering their time, so great people, and every week that rotates … so he’s meeting more and more people all the time that are just being generous, and it doesn’t stop, so he can see that there’s one bad person out there but he can see the hundreds of good people that there are too.”