Keller @ Large: Hoping For Tsarnaev's Execution
BOSTON (CBS) - We can now drop the qualifier "admitted": Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a mass murderer, confessed by his own hand in that boat, acknowledged by his lawyers, and now convicted by a jury of his peers.
He's a mass murderer who specializes in young children, women and cops.
And as opposed to lost souls who kill out of anger or the in the grip of addiction or insanity, this guy did it for the most profane reasons – to make a political statement, imbued with religious zealotry.
His lawyers are trying their best to generate sympathy for his humanity, but they have nothing to work with. He treated the verdict as he has the rest of the trial so far, like a boring distraction, an annoying interruption of his slacker, drug-dealer lifestyle.
I respect the views of those who oppose the death penalty under any circumstances, as long as that includes all state-sanctioned killing. As I said here last week, I was inclined to see him merely rot in prison for life when this trial began, on the grounds that it might have spared victims and their families further agony.
Read: What's Next For Tsarnaev?
But I've changed my mind, and in the wake of the verdict I'm not hearing anything to change it again.
The always-thoughtful Prof. Dan Kennedy of Northeastern writes on CNN's website that Tsarnaev is now no more than a distraction from the memory of his victims. "He should be allowed to fade away into the obscurity of a maximum-security prison cell."
I respectfully disagree.
His crimes are so notorious, we will be periodically reminded of him as long as he lives. Only in richly-deserved death will this violent creep be forgotten.
Let's hope the jury agrees.
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