Boston Marathon Bomber Ordered To Pay $101 Millions To Victims

Boston Marathon Bomber Ordered To Pay $101 Millions To Victims

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Twenty two year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, has been ordered to pay more than $101 million in reparations to his victims. Last June, Tsarnaev was sentenced to death for his role in an attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. Dhzokhar’s accomplice, his brother Tamerlan, died during the course of the operation to capture the two.

US District Judge George A O’Toole Jr ordered Tsarnaev to pay $101,124,027 to 49 individuals and to the Massachusetts Victim Compensation Fund. The fund has been used to pay other victims of the bombing, and Tsarnaev’s remittance would repay the fund.

Tsarnaev is currently incarcerated while he appeals his sentence. Because of this, he will have no ability to pay the restitution, making the court order a largely symbolic gesture – a grave condemnation of his role in the 15 April 2013 attack.

The judge’s decision was based on an independent consultant’s report on the cost of the injuries and rehabilitation, as well as the financial toll the injuries are expected to take on the victim’s lives. Tsarnaev’s lawyers did not object to the calculations, but are appealing the conviction and death sentence.

Judge O’Toole also rejected Tsarnaev’s request for a new trial, which was largely based on the claim that he would not be able to get a fair trial in the same city where the bombing happened.

Tsarnaev was condemned to death following a four month trial, and is currently held at the federal supermax prison in Colorado for the duration of the appeal process. He will now be able to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The appeal process could stretch to many years.