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Ashland publisher offers prize for environmental book ... Ashland Calendar, Friday, May 8 ... Our View: Forest work is a bargain ... Ashland publisher offers prize for environmental book ... Ashland Calendar, Friday, May 8 ... Dianne Williamson: Let's end the marathon bomber saga By Dianne Williamson The Telegram & Gazette DailyTidings.com By Dianne Williamson The Telegram & Gazette Posted May. 7, 2015 @ 8:13 am By Dianne Williamson The Telegram & Gazette Posted May. 7, 2015 @ 8:13 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2324,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came from a far-away land exploited by the Russians. His mother was a radical and his father was mentally ill. His older brother was a controlling brute. When he was a boy, little Dzhokhar cried when Simba’s father was killed in “The Lion King.” As we enter month three in the interminable trial of the marathon bomber, seldom has so much time and effort been expended for such little return. By now, we’ve grown disdainful of the Dzhokhar documentary and the humanizing details intended to spare his life. Apparently the bomber was once a sweet, smiling kid who earned the singular devotion of a relative’s dog. His family spent summers along the Caspian Sea. He liked to smoke pot and was captain of his high school wrestling team. Most of all, the defense has stressed that Dzhokhar was in thrall to his older brother, Tamerlan, that Tamerlan was the mastermind of the bombings, that Tamerlan was the true zealot and Dzhokhar simply a follower. “In each family, the father is all powerful and the eldest brother has tremendous power,” Michael Reynolds, an associate professor in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, told the jury in U.S. District Court in Boston. “And when the father can no longer fulfill his role, the elder brother rules the family.” I believe every word of this defense. And I don’t care. I’ve privately dubbed the attempt to spare Dzhokhar’s life the “so what” defense, because even if it’s true, well, so what? Nearly everyone who kills believes they have a reason to do so, and yes, society has determined that certain mitigating circumstances may partially explain behavior and result in a lighter sentence for the defendant. Examples include drug abuse that results in diminished capacity, or even a man who catches his wife cheating and commits a crime of passion. But nowhere has society determined that a killer could justify a lighter sentence by explaining that his big brother told him to do it. Not when this killer is 19. Not when he’s a rational college student fully capable of grasping the horrific consequences of his premeditated actions. I don’t care if he’s from Chechnya or Chicopee. This lame excuse doesn’t fly. Regardless, defense lawyers in the death penalty phase of this trial are presenting testimony that Tsarnaev was merely following the lead of his co-conspirator brother, Tamerlan, when he set off bombs on Boylston Street that killed three and wounded more than 260. A jury last month found Dzhokhar guilty of all 30 counts, including 17 that could send him to death row. From the first day of this trial in early March, his guilt was never in doubt. Defense lawyer Judy Clarke immediately conceded that her client set off the bomb and called his actions “inexcusable.” Still, though, that big brother was awfully belligerent! And imagine being raised by those crazy parents! This week, a psychiatrist portrayed Dzhokhar, now 21, as the product of a dysfunctional family. His father was tortured in a Russian camp in the 1990s and couldn’t abide light. Reynolds, meanwhile, gave the jury a history lesson of the Chechen region, including its centuries of war with Russia. Wednesday, a brain development expert testified that the section of the brain that matures last is the part that controls impulses. In teenagers, he said, impulse control is “still under construction.” Pity the poor jury, which is tasked with either sending Dzhokhar to his death or sentencing him to endure a sort of living death, in a federal supermax prison where he’d be confined in a tiny room for 23 hours a day. Even if he’s sentenced to die, his execution won’t come for years. Outside the courtroom, there seems little appetite for executing Dzhokhar, especially after the parents of the youngest victim said the death penalty “could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives.” If you believe in state-sanctioned execution, perhaps no one deserves it more than Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. That’s what my head says. But my heart wants him gone as soon as possible, which rather perversely means locking him up for life. Either way, what a long way to go, and what a painstaking process, to finally say good riddance to a monster. Contact Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette columnist Dianne Williamson at [email protected]. By Dianne Williamson The Telegram & Gazette DailyTidings.com By Dianne Williamson The Telegram & Gazette Posted May. 7, 2015 @ 8:13 am » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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