Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Apologizes To Victims For Taking Lives

The surviving Boston bomber apologized and expressed remorse for his attack for the first time.

According to TIME, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev addressed his victims for about five minutes in court earlier today after being chastised by 24 of their friends and relatives for roughly three hours.

A federal jury voted to sentence the 21-year-old to death last May, just over two years after Dzhokhar and his slain older brother, Tamerlan, planted bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 260.

Patricia Campbell, who lost her 29-year-old daughter, Krystle, in the attack, told Tsarnaev,

What you did to my daughter is disgusting. I don't know what to say to you. I think the jury did the right thing.

Of the terrorist, Karen Rand McWatters, Krystle's best friend, said,

He can't possibly have had a soul to do such a horrible thing.

Tsarnaev then stood and faced the judge to issue his first public statement in over two years.

He said,

I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, for the damage that I've done — irreparable damage.

Tsarnaev told victims he would pray for their "relief" and "healing," the Boston Globe reports, and begged forgiveness from the God of the Muslim faith. He continued,

I am Muslim. My religion is Islam. I pray to Allah to bestow his mercy on those affected in the bombing and their families.

US District Judge George O'Toole Jr told the bomber, who was found hiding in a boat in a residential backyard days after the attack, his name is now synonymous with villainy.

The judge said,

No one will remember that your teachers were fond of you, that you were funny, a good athlete. Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you have done. What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed… It was a monstrous self-deception. You had to forget your own humanity.

Judge O'Toole then formally sentenced Tsarnaev to death by way of lethal injection.

It will most likely be several years before he is executed, however, due to a lengthy appeals process.

Citations: Boston Marathon Bomber Apologizes for the First Time (TIME), Tsarnaev apologizes for Boston Marathon bombing (The Boston Globe)