‘The Innocence..Is Gone’: Accused Marathon Bomber Heads To Court

Almost two years ago, two tightly packed pressure cookers unleashed a storm of ball bearings and nails that ended three lives and ripped off legs at the crowded finish line of the 117th Boston marathon.

Locals this week will once again confront those indisputable facts and many that are far more complicated as a 21-year-old college student stands trial for crimes that felt to many like an attack on the city itself.

The accused bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, must be concerned first and foremost with the opinions of 12 jurors and six alternates expected to be selected on Tuesday. They will determine if he’s guilty, and if so, whether he should be executed. But when Tsarnaev enters the federal courtroom above Boston Harbor, he will be a marked man to many more who’ve already made up their minds.

“Boston is such a city that you don’t do what you did. This marathon is over 100 years old. A little boy was killed. It’s not right,” said Claire O’Connell, a nurse for 28 years at the city’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she treated some survivors in the surgical ICU. “The innocence of this 100-plus-year-old race is gone and probably never to return again.”

THE ATTACKS AND THE MANHUNT

“One of the fundamental axioms of criminal defense law is you’re not just raising the issues in terms of winning. You’re also trying to raise issues for review down the line,” he said.

It’s no surprise the defense wanted a change of venue. Boylston Street, where the bombs exploded, is practically sacred ground to Boston residents. Photos of a bundled-up man solemnly shoveling snow from the finish line in January reawakened the intense local pride and sense of resiliency that has been boiled down to two words: Boston Strong.

Love that Dirty Frozen Water #Boston #bostonblizzard #BostonStrong pic.twitter.com/BDaI2m1z0C

— Philip L. Hillman (@PhillyIdol1017) January 27, 2015

“I think there is some pride in looking at what we did and … at what we did together,” O’Connell, the nurse, said of the city’s solidarity. “This is what life should be every day.”

The Huffington Post