Victims, local politicians react to Biden's decision to leave Boston Marathon bomber on death row

Carol Downing ran the Boston Marathon the year Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother planted bombs near the finish line that killed three people and injured hundreds more, including three of her family members. She says she would have been furious if President Biden had commuted his death sentence this week.

On first hearing the news Monday, she said:  "If he lets him off, I am going to be livid." Then she learned Tsarnaev was was not on the list. "I was very happy to see that he had not pardoned him."

Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row to life in prison without parole. The White House said the president decided not to commute the sentences of men involved in hate crimes or terrorism, including Tsarnaev.

A number of Massachusetts political leaders said they agreed with the decision. Gov. Maura Healey told reporters Monday this means Tsarnaev will continue to be "held accountable." She said she still thinks about the pain his actions caused.

"We all remember that horrific day," she said. "Tsarnaev will continue to face the death penalty and be held accountable. But especially right now — this holiday season — I think about the families, the victims. Think about law enforcement, first responders who bravely responded in that moment."

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, praised Biden for commuting the sentences for 37 others.

"There is no action more powerful or righteous than sparing someone’s life," she said in a statement. "The death penalty is a racist, flawed, and fundamentally unjust punishment that has no place in any society."

Her comment did not mention Tsarnaev. But she previously condemned the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate the death penalty against him and has sponsored legislation to eliminate the federal death penalty altogether.

Biden also excluded Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist killings of nine Black church members in South Carolina and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

Tsarnaev's lawyers haven't given up the fight to overturn his verdict. A federal appeals court in March ruled the trial court judge must investigate whether two jurors should have been excluded because of bias in the case. If the investigation finds either juror should have been excluded from the jury, Tsarnaev would be entitled to a new trial, the court ruled.

Defense lawyers have also asked U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole to be removed from the case because of comments he made on podcasts and in other public venues.

Northeastern University law professor Daniel Medwed, who has been following the Tsarnaev case closely, said it's "impossible to predict" the outcome of all the appeals.

Medwed said it's common for the appeals process to take years in death penalty cases across the country, because the stakes are so high. The average time between sentencing and execution is close to 19 years, according to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center, longer than many other kinds of cases.

"The difference with the death penalty is that it's irrevocable," he said. "So you want to make sure it's right."

But Medwed said it seems unlikely future presidents will commute Tsarnaev's sentence, given Biden's decision and Trump's support of the death penalty.

Former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who prosecuted the marathon bombing case, said she was "gratified" Biden did not include Tsarnaev on the commutation list. But Ortiz questioned the different ways in which presidents decide to handle death penalty cases.

"What troubles me greatly, certainly at this juncture, is the inconsistency in the way in which it seems to be imposed," Ortiz told WBUR. "It has become so politicized to the extent that if you're on death row during a certain administration there's no action taken. And yet, when you're on death row in another administration, which is obviously President Trump's, then there seems to be an accelerated pace to handle these cases."

Ortiz said Congress should examine the inconsistency in the way the federal government carries out the death penalty.

Prosecutors said Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, placed two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013, causing grave injuries and mayhem at a beloved annual sports event attended by thousands.

While on the run from police, the Tsarnaev brothers killed MIT officer Sean Collier in Cambridge on April 18, then engaged in a shootout with police the following day in Watertown, where Tamerlan was killed. Dzhokhar was later found hiding in a backyard boat. Boston Police Sgt. Dennis ‘DJ’ Simmonds, died a year later after suffering head injuries during the Watertown shootout.

Tsarnaev was given the death sentence in 2015 and is now being held at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. His lawyers did not deny his involvement in the bombing, but suggested his brother was the ringleader.

Victims of the bombing and their families have expressed a range of views on Tsarnaev’s death sentence.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.