After presenting emotional testimony about the the physical damage one of the bombs inflicted on 8-year-old Martin Richard, the prosecution rested in its case against admitted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
NPR's Tovia Smith is inside the court room and she's been Tweeting about the trial. She reports:
gov calls medical examnr who atuopsied 8yo martin richard. parents in second row. mom's been here ev single day of trial-dad most #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
#Tsarnaev def attnys always careful to respectfully face witnesses giving this kind of emotional test abt death & injury. jahar not so much
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
med ex shows martin's clothes-celts shirt w/gaping hole on side, sleeve blown 2bits. pats T under also shredded/soaked w/blood #tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
med ex: catastrophic injuries to martin's torso-organs exposed/eviscerated/outside body. one piece of metal went all way thru him #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
jurors wincing,emotional as med ex describes dreadful fatal injuries 2 martin. not 1single part of his little body escaped injury #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
jurors see pics of all the debris collected from richards 4 1/2 foot, 70 lb body- BB's, nails, all kinds of metal shrapnel #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
Med Examnr says martin died from blood loss, and states the obvious: that all the injuries and burns would have been painful. #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
jurors weep &wince as they view images of martin's remains.1 keeps hand by eyes, 1 holds head. martin's dad wraps arm around mom #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
truly painful as prosecutor & med examnr point & circle various injuries on martin's autopsy photo, technically describing each. #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
excruciating detail of martin's autopsy-going on longer than for other victims. tissues all around the jury box- many look away #Tsarnaev
— tovia smith (@toviasmithnpr) March 30, 2015
After that testimony, Tsarnaev's defense attorneys did not have any questions, so the prosecution rested its case.
The AP reports:
"Now that prosecutors have finished their case, Tsarnaev's lawyers are presenting theirs. The defense has made it clear since testimony began March 4 that its strategy during the two-phase trial is not to win an acquittal for Tsarnaev but to save him from the death penalty. ...
"The first witness called by the defense Monday was Michelle Gamble, a field photographer for the FBI who testified at the behest of prosecutors earlier in the day. Gamble had been asked by prosecutors to identify the photo that showed Dzhokhar Tsaarnaev standing just feet behind Martin, his younger sister, the rest of the Richards family and other children.
"The defense case is expected to be relatively short. Once that is complete, jurors will deliberate on whether Tsarnaev is guilty of the 30 federal charges against him in the bombing, in Collier's killing and for his role in a violent confrontation with police in Watertown. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during the confrontation, both by gunshots and from being run over by Dzhokhar as he escaped. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found more than 18 hours later hiding in a boat parked in a Watertown yard."
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