Boston bombing trial defense next week may be brief

BOSTON – Prosecutors in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brought their case to an emotional peak Thursday as they prepared to let the defense have its turn next week.

After a day of technical testimony from bomb experts, jurors struggled to handle the graphic images put in front of them. On their screens: autopsy photos of bombing victim Krystle Campbell, who was 29 when she died of blast injuries to her torso and lower extremities.

Jurors were noticeably disturbed. One woman broke down, apparently overwhelmed by the sight of gaping holes in the backs of Campbell's legs and her shrapnel-filled lower body. Another woman wouldn't look at the screen. Men and women alike covered their mouths as the images kept coming.

Campbell's injuries, including a broken femur, would have been "very painful," according to medical examiner Jennifer Hammer. She estimated that Campbell died within one minute of the attack.

"The reason she passed away was that she lost a significant amount of blood in a short period of time," Hammer said.

The introduction of vivid autopsy photos marked the government's final push before resting in the guilt phase of the trial.

On Monday, jurors are expected to see two more victims' autopsy photos, including those of an 8-year-old boy, before the defense begins calling its own witnesses.

After closing arguments from both sides, the case goes to the jury. If the verdict is "guilty," jurors will sit for a second trial: the penalty phase.

When Tsarnaev's attorneys get their turn next week, they're expected to call only a few witnesses. That's because they're focused on their client's punishment, not his culpability.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they did very little to almost nothing at this stage of the proceeding," said John Blume, director of the Death Penalty Project, a research center at Cornell Law School.

He said, "It would reaffirm the message they've been trying to send, which is, 'We're not trying to deny that our client has legal responsibility for what happened. … What we are trying to tell you is that he was deeply and heavily influenced by his more radicalized brother.'"

To date, Tsarnaev's attorneys have pursued a strategy that all but concedes the most serious charges. Lead attorney Judy Clarke said in her opening statement that he was involved in carrying out the April 15, 2013, attack that left three people dead and more than 260 injured, including more than a dozen who had limbs amputated.

"It was him," Clarke said of her client in opening statements.

Tsarnaev, 21, faces a 30-count indictment; 17 of the counts carry the possibility of the death penalty.

"The defense has done well, given their objective," said Robert Bloom, a former prosecutor and defense attorney who teaches at Boston College Law School. "Their objective first of all was to maintain a good relationship with the jury, so they start off by saying, 'We admit it. We admit that he did this act, and we're not justifying it.'"

Prosecutors have also done well, Bloom said. They needed to show not only guilt on the charges but also that Tsarnaev took initiative and was a terrorist in his own right, not just under the sway of his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 27, who died in the manhunt.

They've done that, Bloom said, in part by questioning witnesses who said they saw him hurling bombs at Watertown Police officers.

"That's to show that he's not just following his older brother," Bloom said.

Where the fight will heat up, the scholars say, is in the penalty phase. Then both sides will duel vigorously to create very different portraits of the man behind the crimes. At that point, the jury would have one decision to make: death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Both Bloom and Blume say it's unlikely that Tsarnaev will take the witness stand. He speaks with a Russian accent, and his lawyers might not want to run the risk of having him come across poorly.

"You worry about would a jury possibly draw a mistaken inference," Blume said. "It could give a mistaken view of whether he's remorseful or not, or a mistaken view of what he's like."