His guilt was never in doubt. His lawyers opened their case by admitting his complicity in the deaths of three people and the wounding of 264 at the 2013 marathon.
But they made their decisions quickly, on both the conviction (after just 11 hours of deliberation) and sentencing (around 14 hours of deliberation).
Here are 10 of the most striking moments from the trial surrounding the worst terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.
For the Prosecution
The survivors and families of victims: In a sorrowful parade, they took the stand, one by one, reliving horrific scenes of carnage and loss. Many jurors wept. Bill Richard recalled leaving his son Martin, 8, who he could tell was dead, to save his daughter, Jane, then 7, whose left leg had been blown off.
Survivors told of continuing struggles, including Marc Fucarile, an amputee who has had more than 70 surgeries and takes more than 60 medications a day, and Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a ballroom dancer who lost a leg and whose husband, Adam, lost chunks from both of his calves, has a constant ringing in his ears and has admitted himself to a mental hospital.
The scene before the blasts: Early in the prosecution’s case, the jury was presented with images of Mr. Tsarnaev lurking behind the Richard family on Boylston Street for four full minutes. After one of the bombs, video showed little Martin with his dying breath trying to reach up to his mother, Denise, who was huddled over him, begging him to live.
The boat writings: The jury saw Mr. Tsarnaev’s incriminating scrawl in the bloodstained, bullet-riddled boat in which he was captured. He wrote, among other things, that the United States government “is killing our innocent civilians,” and “I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished.”
The obscene gesture: The prosecution showed a still photo of Mr. Tsarnaev in his holding cell three months after the bombing, thrusting his middle finger at a surveillance camera. Gasps went up in the courtroom. “This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged,” prosecutors said. The obscene gesture seemed especially shocking because Mr. Tsarnaev has been so impassive in court, rarely showing emotion.
The verdict: On April 8, the jury returned a guilty verdict on every count in the indictment — 30 main charges, plus 69 related questions, for a total of 99 responses of “guilty” or “yes.” While a guilty verdict on most charges was a foregone conclusion, the blowout on all charges showed how thoroughly the jury had sided with the government.
For the Defense
The aerial view of ADX: The defense showed a picture of the supermax prison in Colorado, where a life sentence would have placed Mr. Tsarnaev, 21. In the snow, it looks like Siberia. It was meant to convey that life in America’s toughest prison was a plausible alternative to death because Mr. Tsarnaev, who would have been in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day there, would not be heard from again.
It was highly effective — at least in agitating the prosecution, which spent considerable time trying to suggest that life there was relatively cushy. “The jury cares a lot about this,” prosecutors said to the judge out of earshot of the jury, according to a transcript. “We’re talking about maybe the most important thing for them.”
“It was him”: Judy Clarke, the lead defense lawyer, told jurors right away that her client was complicit. It was a blunt statement, delivered in the face of incontrovertible evidence. The goal: to cast her as a truth-teller, someone they could trust.
“If not for Tamerlan, this wouldn’t have happened”: This was another critical statement from the defense. Mr. Tsarnaev’s lawyers said from the beginning that Dzhokhar’s older brother, Tamerlan, had been the driving force behind the bombings, and they took every chance they got to build on that theme.
Tamerlan, who died from injuries sustained in the manhunt after the bombings, emerged as a violent force in an unstable family and a self-radicalized jihadist who was on the government’s terrorist watch list. This was in sharp contrast to Dzhokhar, seven years younger and of slighter physique, described as a good student, quiet and shy, who adored his big brother.
Sister Helen Prejean: In a risky strategy, the defense called the Roman Catholic nun, a renowned opponent of the death penalty, to testify that Mr. Tsarnaev seemed “genuinely sorry” for his actions. Some viewed this with skepticism, since the defendant had not testified himself and had shown little emotion in court, even as survivors told their gut-wrenching stories. But it allowed Ms. Clarke to say in her closing that he was on a path toward repentance and remorse.
The obscene gesture: After the government showed the still photo of Mr. Tsarnaev thrusting his middle finger, the defense showed the entire video, which put that one-second gesture in context. The video showed him using the camera as if it were a mirror, primping his hair and appearing to be giving the finger to himself. When the guards spoke to him about it, he apologized. The video showed him to be a restless teenager and suggested that the government had used it to mislead the jury.
And Beyond the Courtroom
The Richard Letter: The most powerful argument for the defense was not allowed in court, and it may never have been seen by any of the jurors. It was an open letter from the Richard family asking the government to take the death penalty off the table. The Richards said they wanted the defendant to spend the rest of his life in prison because he would disappear and they could get on with their lives, whereas the death penalty would mean endless appeals.
The jury, which was not sequestered, had been told to ignore news reports about the trial, but word of the Richard’s letter may have been hard to escape.
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