Wife Of Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor Says Death Penalty For Tsarnaev Would Be 'Too Kind'
TORRANCE (CBSLA.com) — A Southland resident critically wounded in the Boston Marathon bombing reacted to the conviction of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was found guilty on multiple counts Wednesday.
"I felt great. I felt that justice was done. I felt that the verdict came out and what he deserved," said John Odom, who watched from his Redondo Beach home as the verdicts were read.
Odom was critically injured April 15, 2013, in the bombing that killed three people and wounded 260 others.
Odom had gone to Boston to watch his daughter run the marathon and was at the finish line with his wife when the bomb went off.
Odom had 11 surgeries, his heart stopped twice on the operating table, and he endured months of therapy to regain use of his legs.
After deliberating for a day and a half, jurors convicted Tsarnaev on all 30 counts, including charges of conspiracy and the deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Associated Press.
Odom's wife said of the verdict: "[It's] one step closer to closure, but we will never have it completely."
"We support the death penalty, but for him it's too kind. We would like him to spend the rest of his life in prison," she said.
Odom too says there could never be closure, and the death penalty wouldn't bring him satisfaction.
"I feel that the death penalty is something that he wants," Odom said of Tsarnaev.
Odom, who still can't feel anything beneath his knees, hopes Tsarnaev spends life behind bars.
"That would be the penalty that would hurt him more than being able to get what he wants and that is 'Kill me,' " he said.
"My son-in-law, my son and my grandson walked just past the bomb just seconds before it went off. I get angry," he said.
According to AP, 17 of the counts Tsarnaev was convicted of are punishable by death.
A jury in the penalty phase will decide whether Tsarnaev should get life imprisonment or the death penalty.
