Sister Prejean Testifies That Tsarnaev Feels Remorse
BOSTON (CBS) - Sister Helen Prejean spent just a few minutes on the stand on Monday, but she gave the Boston Marathon bombing jury exactly the message that the defense team was hoping for.
She told jurors that from her perspective, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev feels remorse.
Prejean testified that Tsarnaev "was genuinely sorry for what he did. I knew, I felt it."
Prejean is the Roman Catholic nun who was made famous when actress Susan Sarandon played her in the movie "Dead Man Walking". She told jurors Monday that is it her life's mission to, as she says, "accompany" people on death row who have committed terrible crimes.
She told this jury she asked Tsarnaev about the people he killed and maimed.
"He said it emphatically. He said,'No one deserves to suffer like they did,'" Prejean testified, adding, "his response was so spontaneous. I had every reason to believe that it was sincere."
"It had pain in it actually when he said what he did," Prejean said. "His face registered it and he kind of lowered his eyes."
Prejean says she has met with Tsarnaev five times since March, traveling to Massachusetts at her own expense. She was not allowed to elaborate on her views about the death penalty or about religion.
Jurors followed her testimony intently as they did for both of the prosecution's rebuttal witnesses, who each talked about the restrictions Tsarnaev would live under if sentenced to life in prison at the supermax facility in Florence, Colorado.
Prosecutors, who want Tsarnaev sentenced to death, argue that even if he is initially imprisoned with very little contact with the outside world, before long he'll be granted more visitors, more communication time, and maybe even be writing his memoirs or getting his college diploma.
Closing arguments are expected Wednesday. The case could be in the jury's hands by late Wednesday afternoon.