BOSTON (AP) — Prosecutors and defense attorneys on Wednesday made their final appeals to the jury that will decide the fate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as jurors began deliberating whether the Boston Marathon bomber should get life in prison or the death penalty. 
 
 "The choice between these very serious alternatives is yours and yours alone to make," Judge George O'Toole Jr. told the panel. 
 
 Jurors must be unanimous in their decision to impose the death penalty. If even a single one votes against death, Tsarnaev will get life in prison. 
 
 Prosecutor Steve Mellin said Tsarnaev wanted to cause his victims as much physical pain as possible to make a political statement. 
 
 "The bombs burned their skin, shattered their bones and ripped their flesh," Mellin said. The blasts "disfigured their bodies, twisted their limbs and punched gaping holes into their legs and torsos." 
 
 "Merely killing the person," he said, "isn't nearly as terrifying as shredding them apart." 
 
 Defense attorney Judy Clarke asked jurors to spare Tsarnaev's life, saying her client "is not the worst of the worst, and that's what the death penalty is reserved for." 
 
 She asked jurors to hold open their minds and try to understand how and why Tsarnaev became involved in the plot. 
 
 "We think that we have shown you that it's not only possible, but probable that Dzhokhar has potential for redemption," she said, adding that he was "genuinely sorry for what he's done." 
 
 The prosecutor showed a large photograph of 8-year-old Martin Richard, who was killed in the attack, and other children standing on a metal barricade near where Tsarnaev placed his bomb. Another photo showed bloodied victims on the sidewalk. 
 
 "This is what terrorism looks like," Mellin said. 
 
 Tsarnaev, he said, showed no regret after the bombings, calmly going to buy a half gallon of milk 20 minutes later. 
 
 "He acted like it was any other day. He was stress-free and remorse-free," Mellin said. "He didn't care because the death and misery was what he sought that day." 
 
 During the four-month trial, prosecutors portrayed Tsarnaev as a callous, unrepentant terrorist who carried out the deadly attack with his radicalized older brother, Tamerlan. 
 
 From the start, Tsarnaev's lawyers admitted he participated in the bombing, but they told the jury he was "a good kid" who was led astray by Tamerlan, who wanted to punish the U.S. for its actions in Muslim countries. 
 
 Clarke said Tsarnaev's parents favored his older brother and pinned their hopes on him, believing he would become an Olympic boxer. She showed photos of his father at boxing matches with Tamerlan, then asked "Where are the pictures of Dzhokhar? He was the invisible kid." 
 
 She noted the testimony of one witness who said the younger Tsarnaev followed his older sibling around "like a puppy." 
 
 Tamerlan was a "jihadi wannabe" who returned to the U.S. angry and frustrated after an unsuccessful attempt to join Islamic extremists in Russia, Clarke said. Then he decided to find another way to wage jihad. 
 
 "If not for Tamerlan, this wouldn't have happened. Dzhokhar would never have done this, but for Tamerlan. The tragedy would never have occurred but for Tamerlan — none of it," Clarke said. 
 
 Mellin dismissed the contention that the older Tsarnaev somehow led his brother down the path to terrorism. "They were partners in crime and brothers in arms. Each had a role to play and each played it," he said. 
 
 Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two bombs exploded near the marathon's finish line on April 15, 2013. 
 
 Tsarnaev, 21, was convicted by a federal jury last month of all 30 counts against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction. The same jury must now decide his punishment. 
 
 Defense lawyers have said a life sentence would also help the families of his victims, who would not be subjected to the years of appeals and public attention that would almost certainly follow a sentence of death. 
 
 The defense showed the jury photos of the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where Tsarnaev would probably be sent if he gets life. There, his lawyers said, he would be locked in his cell 23 hours a day — a solitary existence that would deny him the martyrdom he apparently sought. 
 
 A sentence of life "reflects justice and mercy," Clarke said. Mercy "is never earned. It is bestowed, and the law allows you to choose justice and mercy." 
 
 She disputed prosecutors' characterization of Tsarnaev as unremorseful. She cited testimony of Sister Helen Prejean, who said Tsarnaev told her he was sorry about the pain and suffering victims endured. 
 
 "What unrepentant, unchanged, untouched jihadi is going to meet with a Catholic nun?" she said. 
 
 Mellin reminded jurors that some of them — before they were chosen for the jury — expressed a belief that a life sentence may be worse than death. 
 
 "This defendant does not want to die. You know that because he had many opportunities to die on the streets of Boston and Watertown. But unlike his brother, he made a different choice," Mellin said. "A death sentence is not giving him what he wants. It is giving him what he deserves." ||||| Marathon bombing victim Krystle Campbell was the “light of her father’s life,” prosecutor Steve Mellin said during closing arguments in the penalty phase of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial Wednesday. 
 
 “Now,” Mellin said, “that light is out.” 
 
 At any point before those two bombs exploded at the finish line on that beautiful Patriots’ Day, Tsarnaev “could have reflected, reconsidered, and stood down” from the destruction he and his brother had planned for months, he said 
 
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 Instead, Mellin said, Tsarnaev walked up behind a group of children, placed a backpack four feet behind them, and waited. Mellin paused for 20 seconds during his argument — and then told the jury that Tsarnaev waited 12 times that before walking away. 
 
 “The defendant knew what kind of hell was going to happen, that he unleashed,” he said. 
 
 That hell encompassed more than the pain the dead and wounded suffered, Mellin said. It’s the torment the survivors still feel, the families — like the Richards and the Corcorans — that were physically and emotionally “blown apart” by the events of that day. 
 
 Mellin denounced the defense team’s assertion that Tsarnaev was under his older brother Tamerlan’s sway: “Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not the defendant’s master. They were partners in crime and brothers in arms. Both decided they wanted to punish America, in a way that would win them glory and a place in paradise.” 
 
 The brothers targeted Patriots’ Day, a day in which they knew families would gather to watch the marathon, in which the world would be watching, Mellin said, and targeted innocent people. 
 
 Tsarnaev has been remorseless all along, Mellin said, buying milk right after the bombings and flipping off his holding cell’s camera months later. 
 
 “The only sentence that will do justice in this case is a sentence of death,” he said. 
 
 But in her closing argument, defense attorney Judy Clarke said the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst—and “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is not the worst of the worst.” 
 
 Clarke spent much of her argument going through the circumstances that brought Tsarnaev into the plot she said originated with Tamerlan. 
 
 “The story of the Boston Marathon bombing is of a tragedy of their making, but it is more than that,” she said. 
 
 Clarke detailed Tsarnaev’s family life, from the many moves he went through as a child to his troubled parents and status as “the invisible kid,” and, finally, Tamerlan’s influential personality and radical beliefs crystallized during his 2012 trip to Russia. 
 
 “To say Tamerlan did not influence Dzhokhar defies the reality,” Clarke said, adding that, by September of 2012, Dzhokhar’s “sole source of family, of support, of strength, was his older brother.” 
 
 Tamerlan was the one who sought jihad in Russia, who sent radical Islamist materials to Dzhokhar, who had a photograph of dead children as his computer’s wallpaper, she said. 
 
 “Dzhokhar would never have done this, but for Tamerlan,” Clarke said. 
 
 According to Clarke, the government failed to prove that Dzhokhar is a hopeless case for whom the only appropriate punishment is death. According to the testimony of Sister Helen Prejean, he has even grown to show remorse for his crimes, she said. 
 
 “We think we’ve shown you that … Dzhokhar has potential for redemption,” Clarke said. 
 
 Should Tsarnaev be spared, she said, it’ll be no picnic. He’ll be sent to ADX, where Clarke said “he’ll have no glory and stature that martyrdom could bring.” 
 
 Clarke emphasized that no punishment could take back what Tsarnaev did, or even “balance the scales.” Life is prison is not a lesser punishment than death, she said—it’s just another kind. 
 
 “I ask you to make a decision of strength,” she told jurors. “I ask you to choose life.” 
 
 During his rebuttal, prosecutor William Weinreb criticized the defense’s continued focus on Tamerlan: “At times it might have seemed to you that Tamerlan was on trial.” 
 
 But at no point in the trial, Weinreb said, did the defense prove that Tamerlan made his brother commit any crimes, or brainwashed him to hold any radical beliefs. 
 
 Instead, Tsarnaev’s “actions are the best guide to the depths of his beliefs,” he said. 
 
 Despite defense testimony that Tsarnaev feels remorse, Weinreb said that it is unlikely that Tsarnaev would spend much time thinking about the bombing victims should he be sent to prison for life. 
 
 “Maybe he’ll leave behind his memories of Martin, Lingzi and Krystle the same way he left them lying on the street, bleeding,” he said. 
 
 “The defendant deserves the death penalty not because he’s inhuman,” Weinreb said, “but because he’s inhumane.” 
 
 Referring to life in prison as the minimum allowable punishment for Tsarnaev’s crimes, Weinreb asked jurors, “Does he deserve the minimum punishment, or do these crimes, these four deaths, deserve something more?” 
 
 It was the government’s last line to the jury, who are now tasked with determining Tsarnaev’s fate. 
 
 Read past daily summaries from the trial. 
 
 The Alcatraz of the Rockies 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Dubbed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” ADX Florence is the super-maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could spend the rest of his life if he does not recieve the death penalty. BOB DAEMMRICH/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next “There have been some reports that the conditions at Guantanamo are better than at the ADX,” Laura Rovner, associate law professor at the University of Denver College of Law, told The Boston Globe CHRIS MCLEAN/AP Photo 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Cells at ADX are fitted with immovable concrete furniture. US District Court, Colorado via The Boston Globe 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Tsarnaev would have access to a small outdoor cage for exercise and fresh air for one hour a day. US District Court, Colorado via The Boston Globe 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Seven inmates have reportedly committed suicide since the prison opened in 1994. A class-action lawsuit was filed in 2012 alleging the prolonged solitary confinement at the prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. US District Court, Colorado via The Boston Globe 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Advertisement 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Terry Nichols, one of the accomplices in the Oklahoma City bombing, is an inmate at ADX serving 168 consecutive life sentences. REUTERS/Staff/Files 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next Ted J. Kaczynski, commonly known as the Unabomber, is also an inmate at ADX. Lewis and Clark Sheriff's Department/Associated Press 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next During the trial’s sentencing phase, Tsarnaev’s defense team called Mark Bevy, a former prison warden, to the stand to describe how bleak Tsarnaev’s life would be at ADX. On cross-examination, prosecutors downplayed Bevy’s previous testimony, explaining that Tsarnaev would be able to write letters, have visitors, and even author a book while in prison. Federal Public Defender Office 
 
 Previous -- of -- Next A photo of ADX from above submitted into evidence by Tsarnaev’s defense team. Federal Public Defender Office 
 
 Follow live updates from reporters at the trial below. 
 
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 The Charges Against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Explained in Plain English 
 
 Map: Important Boston Marathon Bombing Locations 
 
 Timeline of Boston Marathon Bombing Events ||||| Bomber's guilt never in question, but life without parole will let him drift off into obscurity. 
 
 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense attorneys pass anti-death penalty protesters outside the court in Boston on Wednesday. (Photo: Katherine Taylor, epa) 
 
 BOSTON — Despite great anticipation and intensive news media coverage, the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing has, up to this point, had as much suspense as a Law & Order rerun. 
 
 The guilty verdict on all 30 counts rendered by the jury of seven women and five men inside a packed federal courthouse here came as no surprise. Not even the defendant showed any emotion as each count was read aloud. 
 
 From the very start of the proceedings five weeks ago, the defense has conceded defeat in the guilt phase of the bifurcated capital murder trial. In her opening statement to the jury, defense counsel Judy Clarke admitted that Tsarnaev did indeed join his now-deceased older brother, Tamerlan, in detonating two explosions near the finish line of the storied foot race, killing three spectators, including an 8-year-old boy, and injuring more than 260. 
 
 Despite the defense's concession, the prosecution proceeded to call 92 witnesses to the stand, presenting in excruciating detail the pain and devastation caused by the Tsarnaev brothers as part of their self-styled jihadist attack on America. The purpose was to set the stage for the real challenge that lies ahead in the penalty phase, when the jury will be tasked with choosing between the death penalty and a sentence of life without parole eligibility. 
 
 I am certainly not alone in believing that the federal government should have saved time and great expense by negotiating a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence, just as it had in the case against Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. Besides, persuading the jury to recommend death for Tsarnaev, which requires a unanimous vote, is hardly the slam dunk that characterized the uncontested guilt portion of the trial. 
 
 Even though the jury pool was "death qualified," purged of anyone who would absolutely not be willing to vote to execute the defendant, it is still a tall order to persuade all 12 residents of liberal Massachusetts that capital punishment is the better option. 
 
 Notwithstanding the extreme horror of the marathon bombings and the terror-filled days before the massive manhunt came to an end, it is hard to argue that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, qualifies as "the worst of the worst," the criterion often used in deciding who shall be executed. 
 
 Virtually all the evidence points to the fact that the defendant was subordinate to his 26-year-old brother. It was Tamerlan who became radicalized, who purchased the bomb-making supplies, and who threatened the carjacking victim at gunpoint. Tamerlan died in a confrontation with law enforcement officers three nights after the bombings. It is a stretch to suggest that the brothers were truly equal partners. Were it not for the close brotherly bond and Tamerlan's influence, Dzhokhar might still be just a struggling college student content to smoke weed with his buddies in his dorm room. 
 
 At the time of the bombing on April 15, 2013, the defendant was only 19, less than two years ​above the age threshold when he'd have been exempted from the death penalty. Even though legally of age, he lacked the maturity to think and act independently of the older brother whom he revered. Of course, none of this absolves the defendant or suggests that he is not culpable for his crimes, only that his responsibility is sufficiently diminished so as not to warrant the supreme penalty of death. 
 
 If the government is indeed successful in persuading the jury to recommend death, it will fail to bring the kind of closure that many of the victims and their survivors are anticipating. Just the opposite might occur. 
 
 A sentence of death will likely transform Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an amateur terrorist, into a martyr for all those here and abroad who hate America. Better that he drift off into the obscurity of some dark and distant prison cell without the continued news media focus that an execution would bring. 
 
 Life without parole is an outcome we can all live with. 
 
 James Alan Fox is the Lipman Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University and co-author of Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder. He also is a member of the USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. 
 
 In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page. 
 
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– Now Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's fate is up to the jury: either life in prison or the death sentence. Attorneys made their closing arguments today in the sentencing phase of Tsarnaev's trial, with prosecutors focusing on the carnage he helped inflict and defense attorneys on his reported remorse, the Boston Globe reports. They also sparred over whether Dzhokhar, now 21, had fallen under the spell of his older brother, Tamerlan. Among the highlights: "The bombs burned their skin, shattered their bones and ripped their flesh," says prosecutor Steve Mellin, the AP reports. The blasts "disfigured their bodies, twisted their limbs and punched gaping holes into their legs and torsos. Merely killing the person, isn't nearly as terrifying as shredding them apart." "He acted like it was any other day," says Mellin, who notes that Tsarnaev calmly bought milk 20 minutes after the bombing. "He was stress-free and remorse-free. He didn't care because the death and misery was what he sought that day." "The only sentence that will do justice in this case is a sentence of death," adds Mellin. But with a life sentence, Tsarnaev will "have no glory or stature that martyrdom will bring," says defense attorney Judy Clarke, CNN reports. "His name will fade from the headlines. It will fade from the news altogether." "That sounds like growth," says Clarke of Tsarnaev's meeting with a nun, to whom he reportedly showed remorse. "What unrepentant, unchanged, untouched young jihadi is going to meet with a Catholic nun." "I can tell you this," says Clarke. "Jahar Tsarnaev is not the worst of the worst. And that is what the death penalty is reserved for—the worst of the worst."