BOSTON (AP) -- Moments before a judge sentenced him to death, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev rose to his feet Wednesday and apologized to the victims and their loved ones for the first time. "I pray for your relief, for your healing," he said.

Courtroom sketch of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Courtroom sketch of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Jane Flavell Collins via AP, File)
loading...

"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," the 21-year-old college student said haltingly in his Russian accent, breaking more than two years of silence.

After Tsarnaev said his piece, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. quoted Shakespeare's line "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is often interred with their bones."

"So it will be for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev," the judge said, telling Tsarnaev that no one will remember that his teachers were fond of him, that his friends found him fun to be with or that he showed compassion to disabled people.

"What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people, and that you did it willfully and intentionally. You did it on purpose," O'Toole said in ordering that Tsarnaev be executed.

Tsarnaev looked down and rubbed his hands together as the judge pronounced his fate.

The apology came after Tsarnaev listened impassively for about three hours as a procession of 24 victims and survivors lashed out at him for his "cowardly" and "disgusting" acts and urged him to show some remorse at long last.

Tsarnaev assured the victims he was paying attention.

"All those who got up on that witness stand and that podium relayed to us, to me -- I was listening -- the suffering that was and the hardship that still is, with strength, with patience, with dignity," he said.

The outcome of the proceedings was never in doubt: The judge was required under law to impose the jury's death sentence for the April 15, 2013, attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

The only real suspense was whether Tsarnaev would say anything when given a chance to speak. And if so, would he show remorse? Or he would make a political statement and seek to justify the attack?

During his trial, he showed a trace of emotion only once, when he cried while his Russian aunt was on the stand. And the only evidence of any remorse came from Sister Helen Prejean, the "Dead Man Walking" death penalty opponent, who quoted him as saying of the victims: "No one deserves to suffer like they did."

Police remove a cleaver from the car of an unidentified man, seated right, in front of federal court in Boston,
Police remove a cleaver from the car of an unidentified man, seated right, in front of federal court in Boston,
loading...

In condemning him to death, the jury cited his lack of remorse as one of many factors.

His apology was a five-minute address peppered with religious references and praise of Allah. He paused several times as if struggling to maintain his composure. He stood and faced the judge while speaking, but spoke of the victims.

Tsarnaev will probably be sent to the death row unit at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed. It could take years or even decades for appeals to work their way through the courts.

In May, the jury condemned the former college student to die for joining his older brother, Tamerlan, in setting off the two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line to retaliate against the U.S. for its wars in Muslim lands. Tsarnaev was also found guilty in the shooting death of an MIT police officer as the brothers fled. Tamerlan, 26, was killed during the getaway.

At his sentencing, a somber-looking Tsarnaev, wearing a dark sport jacket with a collared shirt and no tie, sat between his lawyers, his chair turned toward the lectern from which the victims spoke. He picked at his beard and gazed downward most of the time, only occasionally looking at the victims.

"He can't possibly have had a soul to do such a horrible thing," said Karen Rand McWatters, who lost a leg in the attack and whose best friend, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, was killed.

Campbell's mother, Patricia Campbell, was the first person to address the court. She looked across the room at Tsarnaev, seated about 20 feet away, and spoke directly to him.

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

Rebekah Gregory, a Texas woman who lost a leg in the bombing, defiantly told Tsarnaev she is not his victim.

"While your intention was to destroy America, what you have really accomplished is actually quite the opposite -- you've unified us," she said, staring directly at Tsarnaev as he looked down.

"We are Boston strong, we are America strong, and choosing to mess with us was a terrible idea. So how's that for your VICTIM impact statement?"

Bill Richard, whose 8-year-old son Martin was the youngest person killed in the bombing, noted that his family would have preferred that Tsarnaev receive a life sentence so that he could have had "a lifetime to reconcile with himself what he did that day."

Richard said his family has chosen love, kindness and peace, adding: "That is what makes us different than him."

 

(© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed)

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM